Saturday Night Live faced fury from its audience after making a joke about the high-profile Cornell rape scandal that made co-host Colin Jost the punchline.
A woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit last month accusing seven students at the Ivy League institution of gang raping her, in what has become known as the ‘Cornell seven’ case.
In the suit, Doe claimed that she was plied with alcohol, pressured to take ketamine and repeatedly sexually assaulted for hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
Saturday Night Live covered the lawsuit in its most recent episode during The Weekend Update, a popular segment co-hosted by Michael Che and Colin Jost.
‘Of course, one of the big stories in the news this week is the sexual assault case at Cornell, and obviously we don’t want to make light of anything that happened,’ Che began.
‘But it is a good time to talk about men holding other men accountable. And look, we all have that one friend that seems like a nice guy,’ Che continued as the camera cut to Jost, who was looking down at his desk with a pencil in his hand.
Jost acted like he was unaware of what was happening and looked up with a confused expression after the audience burst out laughing.
‘But you know they’re definitely not,’ Che said before letting out a chuckle himself.
Saturday Night Live joked about the infamous ‘Cornell seven’ scandal during its most recent segment of The Weekend Update
Michael Che said, ‘We all have that one friend that seems like a nice guy’ as the camera cut to Colin Jost, who was looking down and acting unaware
A woman filed a lawsuit accusing seven Cornell students of gang raping her, in what has become known as the ‘Cornell seven’ case. Students are pictured walking on Cornell’s campus
‘And it could be someone you’re close to or someone you work with,’ Che went on as the camera cut to Jost again.
‘Maybe you can’t prove anything, but you could just look at him and tell those weird privileged Ivy League types always got some messed up stuff going on,’ Che said as the camera cut to him then back to Jost.
‘And Colin, did you want to add anything?’ Che then said.
‘What?’ Jost replied with a smile. ‘No, stop cutting to me,’ he added.
‘Alright, don’t wanna help women. Cool,’ Che said sarcastically.
The joke was a hit with the audience, who repeatedly laughed every time the camera cut to Jost.
But users online appeared more divided, however. Some found the segment tactful and funny, while others said they were offended and it was an inappropriate subject to laugh about.
One person wrote: ‘Using cornell as a lead in to joke about rape was so disgusting and disrespectful and dismissive to women and SA victims everywhere. Apologizing isn’t enough- corrective action needs to be taken.’
‘I didn’t know where Che was going with the Cornell joke, but admittedly, I did chuckle a bit. He never fails to take a dig at Colin,’ one commenter on YouTube wrote.
Jost looked up with a confused expression after the audience burst out laughing
Jost looked at the camera as Che continued talking about the case and implying that Jost was a ‘weird privileged Ivy League type’ with ‘some messed up stuff going on’
‘“……wh…what? Stop cutting to me!” I genuinely have no idea if this was rehearsed or not, but dammit I laughed!’ another user on YouTube said.
‘Weekend Update remains the best part of SNL. Michael and Colin continue to be a great duo. “Stop cutting to me”,’ a third YouTube commenter chimed in.
Much of the negative reaction was posted on X, where one user tweeted: ‘I think the reason this was so upsetting is the fact that they have handled serious issues in a non offensive way before…
‘But two men joking about a horrific rape case is just not funny! At all!’
Another user tweeted: ‘I don’t think Michael wrote that failed Cornell joke.’
‘SNL sucks,’ a third user simply said in response to a tweet about the SNL clip.
