Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update segment took a humorous turn this week as Colin Jost poked fun at the right-wing backlash to the appointment of Pope Leo XIV, the first American to hold the role of sovereign of the Vatican City State.
“As an American Catholic, I could not be more proud, which is a sin, and now I’m ashamed,” Jost quipped to start his segment. The announcement of Pope Leo XIV’s appointment has stirred controversy, especially among conservatives who argue that the new pope is too progressive.
Jost continued with his characteristic wit, joking, “You can tell he’s from the South Side [of Chicago] because he’s got his hands up,” drawing both laughs and awkward chuckles from the audience. The humor took a sharp turn when Jost said, “This pick was a welcome surprise for me because when I heard the pope was a super-religious guy from Chicago in a funny robe, I was worried it was Kanye,” referring to Kanye West’s controversial political stances.
As for the right-wing’s criticism, Jost addressed claims that the new pope was “too woke” by joking, “I also love that conservatives are already complaining this pope is too woke. How woke can a 69-year-old man from Chicago be? It’s not like he came out and was like, ‘Hey, I’m Pope Leo XIV, he/him.’” Jost continued with a zinger aimed at the contradiction between being “woke” and being a practicing Catholic: “The reality is there are no woke Catholics. If you’re a woke Catholic, you’re just not a Catholic anymore.”
In addition to the pope jabs, Weekend Update featured other sharp political commentary. Co-host Michael Che cracked a joke about Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s recent appointment as interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., saying, “She celebrated with a bottle of wine every day for the last 50 years.”
Jost also made light of President Donald Trump’s ongoing influence in Republican politics, joking that Trump was attempting to create tension between potential successors Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance by saying, “Mostly by pointing at them and saying kiss.”
Trump’s proposed 100% tariff on foreign films also got the SNL treatment, with Che sarcastically noting, “No problem for me because all the movies I watch were filmed in a Florida condo on a leather couch.”
Che and Jost didn’t stop there, as they continued to lampoon President Biden’s desire to reopen the Alcatraz prison, with Che quipping that those words—”horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable and weak”—could also describe Trump’s five children.
Weekend Update also featured several recurring sketches, including Marcello Hernandez’s portrayal of the enthusiastic but ill-informed Movie Guy, Mikey Day’s bit as “A Guy Who Just Walked Into A Spiderweb,” and Heidi Gardner’s portrayal of “Dianne, the mom who’s only read about New York on Facebook.”
