Michael Che is the latest cast member of Saturday Night Live to find themselves under fire. During this past weekend’s Weekend Update, Che did a segment mocking Kanye West’s new gospel album Jesus is King when he brought up Caitlyn Jenner.
While making his comments, Che made controversial remarks that were called out for being “transphobic” by viewers for “deadnaming” and “misgendering” the former Olympian.
“At first I thought Kanye was losing his mind, and now I feel like he’s fine, he’s just turning into an old white lady,” Che joked. “I mean, he used to be one of the coolest black dudes on Earth. Now he’s showing up to events in sweatpants and orthopedic sneakers, listening to Kenny G and trying to get black people to like Trump. It’s like, how long before this guy changes his name to Kathy?
“Now, you might think that I’m crazy, but about five years ago, there was a fella named Bruce Jenner, and he moved to Calabasas…”
Here are Che’s comments:
Jenner has shown to be a good sport about transgender jokes in the past, even appearing on the Comedy Central Roast and taking fire from other comedians before taking the podium and returning shots.
Social media, however, was not as forgiving when it came to Che’s jokes.
Michael Che about to try out the transphobic joke he was working on all week pic.twitter.com/IffXdKyMRN
— Will Long
(@Willful_long) October 27, 2019
(@Willful_long) There have been additional calls for Che to be fired or removed from Weekend Update because of his comments. The comedian — nor Jenner, however — have publicly responded to the criticism regarding his comments.
It was just over a month ago that SNL fired Shane Gillis from the cast for past comments in September 2018 that were described as “racially insensitive.”
Whether the producers and executives at Saturday Night Live take the same approach regarding Che’s joke about Kanye and Caitlyn Jenner remains to be seen. In the meantime, here is Jenner responding to previous transgender jokes on the Roast of Alec Baldwin.