The One Colin Jost Joke That Made Michael Che Furious On Saturday Night Live

"Saturday Night Live" Weekend Update duo Colin Jost and Michael Che have been at the news desk for 10 years now. Easily the best moments between the two comedians come when they rip into each other, play vicious pranks live on the air, and participate in their joke swap. Typically, at the end of the year and the end of a season, Jost and Che write jokes for each other without knowing what they have written. The jokes are usually written to be intentionally controversial or offensive, creating a magnificent moment of embarrassment and hilarity. If you've somehow never seen this play out on the show, here's a prime example from season 49:

With punchlines written to make things as awkward as possible, you'd think that one of these moments would have resulted in Jost or Che actually being angry about certain jokes they were forced to tell. However, as Che recently revealed in an episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade's "Fly on the Wall" podcast (which takes a retrospective look back at "SNL"), it was a silly, innocuous joke made by Jost that sparked some actual anger from Che. 

The joke in question came from the season 40 finale edition of Weekend Update in May 2015, where each of the anchors brought back a joke that was cut from a previous episode. Jost said, "Ohio police arrested a woman who allegedly stabbed her boyfriend for eating all of their salsa. Though you'd be angry too if your boyfriend was jalapeño business."

That joke made Che "pretty furious." And that's exactly what Jost wanted.

As Che recalled on the podcast:

"I remember in run-through when you did it, because I never heard it before. I don't remember what the setup was, but the punchline was 'jalapeño business,' And I was like, 'If you tell that joke on air, I'm leaving. I'm quitting the show.' And he did it on air and it destroyed. And I was so frustrated. I was so frustrated. I was like, 'I don't even know what we do anymore.'"

That's exactly the kind of terrible joke you tell to get groans from the audience, and the fact that Jost wanted to do it just because he knew Che hated it makes the success of the punchline that much better. Jost said himself, "I would have honestly cut it if it wasn't so upsetting to you. And then I was like, 'I'm definitely, definitely doing this.'"

Jost and Che love antagonizing each other on "SNL," even when they're not doing joke swap. But perhaps the best thing about the joke swap segments during Weekend Update are that it allows each of them the opportunity to write jokes that, if told earnestly, might get either of them in hot water. In an extensive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Che explained how there's not much of a boundary when it comes to executing a joke swap:

"I don't know that there is a line. I think anything can work given the circumstance, and also nothing can work given the circumstance. So, my thing with joke swap, which is the most stand-up thing that we do at 'SNL,' is that the audience just has to believe that I'm trying to embarrass Colin and that this really bothers him and vice versa. And if that comes across, they're not thinking about the content of the joke. So, it's not, 'Oh, that's a racist joke,' it's more, 'Oh, I can't believe he's going to make him say that out loud.'

Personally, I can't wait to see what they cook up for each other in the 50th season.