SNL’s Weekend Update Smacks Down Donald Trump Jr., Kyrie Irving, Elon Musk and Anti-Semitism

Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update torched Donald Trump Jr. for his joke about the Pelosi attack, and roasted several other worthy targets.

Comic superstar Amy Schumer was the guest host on this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live and Steve Lacy was the musical guest — this was Schumer’s third time hosting, leaving her two shy of the “Five-Timer’s Club.”

But many fans of the sketch show wait around just to see the musical guest, then catch the weekly nightly news parody anchored by Colin Jost and Michael Che.

Weekend Update became a mainstay of SNL from the very first episode — on October 11, 1975 — of what was then called simply NBC’s Saturday Night. Chevy Chase anchored solo, and opened the sketch with a gag about disappeared Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. In the early days, Weekend Update was also peppered with commercial parodies and other conventions of TV broadcasts.

The news parody has become a tentpole of the show. In a recent interview from Chris Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace on HBO Max, onetime producer Dick Ebersol told Wallace that Weekend Update was key to keeping viewers tuned in late into the show.

One feature that has come to comprise half of the Update show-within-the-show — or more — are character pieces that feature guest commentators that you really don’t see on the news these days, but used to punctuate local broadcasts in the days of Gilda Radner‘s legendary bits.

The show also often welcomes a cast member to deliver a comic bit as themselves to deliver a comedy bit. But the roots of the segment — and the favorite part for many fans — are the rapid-fire gag news items delivered by the anchors.

This week, Che and Jost took on a raft of the week’s biggest outrages, including this sampling:

JOST: I’m Colin Jost. President Biden, seen here begging for one more year before the midterms, warned about Republican candidates who say they will refuse to accept election results, warning they could set the nation on a path to chaos. So wait, this is just the path to chaos. I thought we’ve been living in chaos for at least six years. I mean, Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked in their home by a guy with a hammer. And instead of even basic sympathy, republicans were like, we heard he gave donald trump jr mocked the attack on pelosi’s husband by posting an image of a hammer and a pair of underpants with a message. Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready. And I would agree that Don Jr is probably the expert on getting hammered in your underwear. Also, Don Jr, is that your underwear man? Why is this so dirty and stretched out like you were trying to burn Paul Pelosi? But now I’m just wondering if you wear your dad’s old underwear.

CHE: After meeting with the Anti-Defamation League, Kyrie Irving announced that from now on he will pretend to not be anti-Semitic. Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving was suspended after he tweeted a link to the anti-Semitic film Hebrew to Negroes. Wake up Black America, you know, Hebrew to Negroes was also the name of my favorite R&B group in the nineties.

JOST: Just days before the midterm elections, Oprah Winfrey endorsed John Fetterman. Instead of the monster she unleashed upon us. Is it crazy that Oprah gave Dr. Oz his career and even she’s turned against him? It’s like if Robin ran for mayor of Gotham and Batman was like, I fully endorse Penguin.

CHE: Herschel Walker responded to Barack Obama, criticizing his qualifications to be in the Senate by saying, put my resume against his resume. Fine. So here’s Obama’s resume and here’s Herschel Walker’s. Better than I thought it was better.

JOST: A couple of typos, but the latest jobs report shows the last economy, the US last month, the US economy added over 200,000 jobs. We’ll see about that, said Elon Musk. This is. This is interesting. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, use of the N-word on the site has reportedly jumped 500%. It’s the biggest increase in the use of the N-word since the last time I stubbed my toe.

Watch just the jokes above via NBC’s Saturday Night Live.