Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
Entertainment
Muri Assunção

‘SNL’ cast member Michael Che deletes all Instagram posts after backlash over Simone Biles jokes

Comedian Michael Che has deleted all of his Instagram posts following a massive backlash over jokes about Simone Biles.

On Thursday, the “Saturday Night Live” cast member wrote on his Instagram story that he wanted to “make fun of” Biles, the Team USA superstar who withdrew from the team gymnastics final on Tuesday to focus on her mental well-being.

“I got like 3 mins of Simone Biles Jokes in my head. I’m going to the Cellar tonight to say them into a microphone. As the dorky kids say, I’m choosing violence,” he wrote.

The 38-year-old host of “Weekend Update” didn’t reveal his jokes, but some of his followers used the opportunity to send him some material, messages he promptly reposted on his Instagram account.

He also commented on the some of the jokes — including one about Larry Nassar, a convicted sex offender who worked team doctor for the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team for nearly two decades.

Biles was one of the dozens of women who were sexually abused by the disgraced doctor.

Che, the co-head writer of the Emmy Award-winning late-night comedy show, commented on the joke, saying that it was “absolutely tasteless,” but giving it a rate of a nine out of 10.

One other person sent Che a racist joke, which Che rated as an eight out of 10.

The comments were slammed by social medial users as “tasteless” and “messed up.”

Writer Delia Harrington said that, “Michael Che comes for people he thinks he can get away with dunking on. Trans women, Black women, sexual assault survivors;” while Oscar-winning director Matthew A. Cherry (2019′s “Hair Love”) called the comedian “trash.”

Che later said he had been hacked, in a seemingly sarcastic message.

“Man, I got hacked today, can’t believe they got me,” he wrote. “Yall kno [sic] I only do jokes about whites and cops.”

———

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.