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Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” host Michael Che took to Instagram to voice his frustrations about the tenor of Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart. Che also exposed the writers who apparently wrote host Shane Gillis’ jokes for him.
According to reports, Michael Che was originally slated to perform at the Netflix event but pulled out due to scheduling conflicts with Saturday Night Live, where he hosts the “Weekend Update” segment alongside Colin Jost.
Michael Che exposed the writers who penned Shane Gillis’ jokes for Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart
After the roast aired on Sunday, Che took to Instagram to air his issues with the broadcast, particularly his interpretation that a bunch of “White guys” were writing jokes for Shane Gillis and the other roasters about a prominent Black comedian.
“White guys and Black people joke different. Black guy roast like, ‘look at this n—- shoes!’ White roasts are like, ‘Slavery, math, slain teens, sex crimes, slurs, family secrets.’ White guys don’t give a f— about they shoes,” Che wrote on Instagram.
“Let’s do a roast celebrating the career of the most successful Black comic in the last 10 years,” Che wrote in a separate post. “‘I love that! Who should we get to write it?'”
On the next slide, Che included a photo of five joke writers hired by Gillis — Nick Mullen, J.P. McDade, Mike Lawrence, Dan St. Germain and Zac Amico — all of whom are White.
— Seth Simons (@sasimons) May 12, 2026
Che’s post seemed to take particular issue with jokes made by Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe. Gillis made jokes mocking Hart’s height that referenced slavery and lynching — the latter of which he admitted required “three weeks of deliberation” — while Hinchcliffe told a controversial joke about George Floyd being in hell that drew significant backlash online and prompted a statement from Floyd’s foundation.
It’s worth noting that the five writers in Che’s IG post are not the only writers who worked on the roast, as the telecast has 17 credited writers total, several of whom are Black.