Colin Jost kicked off “Weekend Update” this week by talking about President Donald Trump and the late Pope Francis.
“Last night, President Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as the Pope,” Jost said, “Apparently ordering a one-way ticket to hell.”
“Who posts a photo of themselves dressed like a guy who died a week ago?” Jost added, before pointing out perhaps the most jarring part of Trump’s behavior.
“Trump was at the Pope’s funeral,” Jost said. “That means he walked past an open casket and was like, ‘Oh, we should do a Who Wore It Best.’”
Jost concluded, “I don’t know, I just feel like, as a Catholic, Trump’s photo just feels slightly disrespectful. Also, if Trump really wants to be Pope, he should probably stay away from J.D. Vance.”
The rest of “Weekend Update” was dark even by this duo’s standards. Co-anchor Michael Che got groans from the crowd for one timely joke about Ye, the controversial rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
“Ye is accusing a Beverly Hills dentist of getting him addicted to nitrous oxide, which caused him extreme mental distress,” Che said. “The dentist apologized, saying he didn’t realize he had the tank set to Nazi.”
“OK,” responded Jost, nodding along to the audience’s reaction. “We’re finding the line.”
Che also joked, “President Trump impersonated a transgender weightlifter in a speech to graduates at the University of Alabama. Which is a sentence so stupid it couldn’t even get into the University of Alabama.”
Jost received another shocked response when he joked about a U.S. fighter jet reportedly being lost after it fell off an aircraft into the ocean.
“Thankfully there’s nobody at the bottom of the ocean who could use an airplane—Oh, God,” Jost said, showing a picture of Osama bin Laden.
Che got even darker with his next joke, however. “This week marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam. Also turning 50: a lot of half-white Vietnamese kids.”
As the audience groaned again, Che joked, “We’re on a roll.”
