Colin Jost and Michael Che have more rejected SNL sketch ideas

Colin Jost and Michael Che visited Late Night with Seth Meyers to talk about Saturday Night Live sketches that never made it to air.

Saturday Night Live fans know all about the intense process that goes into writing, producing, and performing each week’s show. In a matter of days, writers and performers pitch sketches for the host that need to be approved and then need to make it through dress rehearsal. So it’s not surprising that Colin Jost and Michael Che have had a few ideas shot down over the years.

Late Night with Seth Meyers has become the go-to late night show for SNL appreciation. While it makes sense considering Meyers’ previous gig was as a performer and head writer, he’s not the only late night host with connections to Saturday Night Live. Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, and Stephen Colbert have all been involved in the show in some capacity.

But it is clear that SNL holds a special place in Meyers’ heart and he has used the show as a resource countless times since taking over Late Night. Any time a former SNL cast member is a guest, Meyers will bring up a sketch or story about their time at Studio 8H. And one of the best bits on the show is “Second Chance Theater” in which a rejected SNL sketch gets made.

As head writer Meyers was responsible for deciding what sketches would make it to air. Now that responsibility falls on Michael Che and Colin Jost in addition to their roles as Weekend Update hosts. They shared a couple examples of how quickly a sketch idea can be shot down and revealed as terrible during their visit to Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Now with the right audience, “Manny Manimal, the Man of Many Animals,” could have worked. It certainly doesn’t sound like the most bizarre sketch idea when it comes to Saturday Night Live in recent seasons. It sounds like the perfect sketch to air late in an episode that could become a hit with a certain sense of humor. Unfortunately for Jost, and perhaps fortunately for Meyers, it didn’t pass the dress rehearsal test.

Most SNL fans would probably guess that Jost would be the one begging Che not to submit a particular sketch idea. Yet those roles were reversed in Jost’s idea for a response to Che’s “Gretchen” sketch.  SNL usually has a way of finding humor in the headlines but they wisely decided that the R. Kelly story wasn’t one to go mining for laughs.

And if you didn’t catch the Weekend Update segment in which Colin Jost and Michael Che wrote jokes for each other, we have you covered. It was one of the season’s highlights and a perfect representation of the sense of humor and relationship between the two.

Colin Jost and Michael Che will be back on television this Saturday for another all-new episode of Saturday Night Live. The Weekend Update segments continue to be a strong point of the season that looks to continue to momentum from last week’s show with Rachel Brosnahan and Greta Van Fleet. Keep checking with Last Night On for all the coverage.