‘SNL’ Twitter Can’t Decide Whether or Not to Cancel Colin Jost for That Luigi Mangione Joke
Is Colin Jost a blue-blooded, Harvard-educated, ruling class shill, or is he a murderous communist terrorist hellbent on destroying America? Do we even need a third option?
On Saturday night, Jost took to the desk of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” and made a surface-level quip about how many women want to sleep with accused CEO shooter Luigi Mangione. On paper, the joke is exactly the kind of focus-grouped, topical-but-not-opinionated, easy and forgettable punchline that you’d expect NBC’s biggest comedy product to put out about such an inflammatory issue. The line simply reads, “Luigi Mangione dropped his extradition fight and was flown from Pennsylvania to New York to face multiple charges. In related news, Bumble exploded,” and, for all SNL fans know, the show’s publicist is just as likely as its writing staff to have written the down-the-middle bit.
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However, the energetic reaction from the live studio audience to the very words “Luigi Mangione” threw Jost off his rhythm, and his attempt to course-correct before delivering the milquetoast punchline sparked an internet-wide debate over whether Jost and SNL itself are completely out of touch with the American people, or if Jost himself can be considered one of Mangione’s conspirators:
“Yeah, definitely, ‘Woo!’” Jost joked, telling the SNL in-studio audience who had just exploded as if it was 1964 and The Beatles just stepped onstage. “You’re wooing for justice, right?”
Coupled with his shocked expression and his darting eyes, Jost’s best attempt to save the show from drifting to either side of the fence where it had effortfully affixed itself is now the subject of “scientific” body language analysis, Marxist theorizing and conservative conspiracy crafting.
Immediately following “Weekend Update,” the left side of the political spectrum who have slammed the authorities’ pursuit of terrorism charges against Mangione while continuing to attack the healthcare industry, including the late CEO Brian Thompson's own insurance company UnitedHealthcare, began to pry into Jost’s past as proof that he’s with the rich. Twitter socialists continue to point to Jost’s degree from Harvard University as proof that he would sooner side with the CEOs than the millions upon millions of Americans whose lives have been destroyed by medical debt.
Meanwhile, rightwing accounts like “End Wokeness” are using the crowd reaction to the joke and Jost’s non-condemnation as proof that NBC is part of the leftist conspiracy to assassinate successful white men like Thompson and send America into a socialist, anti-white Armageddon.
There are, of course, more level-headed comedy fans who are rightfully pointing out that Jost is a comedian who found himself in a touchy spot after bringing up an even touchier subject, and that the nervousness and shock exhibited by his response could very well just be him fearing that his next words to the crowd could very well turn into the controversy du jour, which it obviously did.
Whatever Jost’s intention behind the ad-lib, he’s proven that, whenever SNL tries to upset no one, it ends up pissing off everyone.
