Saturday Night Live has drawn backlash after turning the high-profile Cornell sexual assault lawsuit into a joke during a Weekend Update segment, with co-host Colin Jost becoming the target.
A woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month accusing seven students at the Ivy League university of gang-raping her. The case has since been widely referred to as the “Cornell seven” scandal.
According to the lawsuit, Doe alleged that she was given excessive amounts of alcohol, pressured to use ketamine and sexually assaulted multiple times over several hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
The allegations were addressed on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live during Weekend Update, the news-focused segment hosted by Michael Che and Colin Jost.
“Of course, one of the big stories in the news this week is the sexual assault case at Cornell, and obviously we don’t want to make light of anything that happened,” Che said as he introduced the topic.
“But it is a good time to talk about men holding other men accountable. And look, we all have that one friend that seems like a nice guy,” Che continued, just as the camera shifted to Jost, who was looking down at the desk while holding a pencil.
Jost appeared to pretend he had no idea why the camera was on him. When the audience erupted in laughter, he looked up with a puzzled expression.
“But you know they’re definitely not,” Che added, laughing along with the crowd.
Saturday Night Live referenced the controversial “Cornell seven” case during the latest Weekend Update segment
Michael Che said, “We all have that one friend that seems like a nice guy,” before the camera cut to Colin Jost, who acted as though he was unaware of the joke
A woman has accused seven Cornell students of gang rape in a lawsuit that has become known as the “Cornell seven” case. Students are pictured on the university’s campus
“And it could be someone you’re close to or someone you work with,” Che continued, prompting another cut to Jost.
“Maybe you can’t prove anything, but you could just look at him and tell those weird privileged Ivy League types always got some messed up stuff going on,” Che said, as the broadcast alternated between shots of him and Jost.
Che then turned to his co-host and asked, “And Colin, did you want to add anything?”
“What?” Jost replied with a grin. “No, stop cutting to me,” he said.
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“All right, don’t want to help women. Cool,” Che responded sarcastically.
The studio audience responded enthusiastically, breaking into laughter each time the camera returned to Jost.
Reaction online was far less unanimous. While some viewers considered the exchange a carefully delivered joke, others said the subject was too serious to be treated humorously and criticized the segment as offensive.
“Using Cornell as a lead-in to joke about rape was so disgusting and disrespectful and dismissive to women and SA victims everywhere,” one person wrote. “Apologizing isn’t enough — corrective action needs to be taken.”
Another commenter on YouTube offered a more mixed reaction: “I didn’t know where Che was going with the Cornell joke, but admittedly, I did chuckle a bit. He never fails to take a dig at Colin.”
Jost looked up with a confused expression after the audience burst out laughing
Jost looked at the camera as Che continued talking about the case and implying that Jost was a ‘weird privileged Ivy League type’ with ‘some messed up stuff going on’
Reactions to the joke appeared split online. Some users such as this one and the one below liked the joke, while others found it offensive
Much of the negative reaction came on X, where this user and the one below said they did not like the joke
‘“……wh…what? Stop cutting to me!” I genuinely have no idea if this was rehearsed or not, but dammit I laughed!’ another user on YouTube said.
‘Weekend Update remains the best part of SNL. Michael and Colin continue to be a great duo. “Stop cutting to me”,’ a third YouTube commenter chimed in.
Much of the negative reaction was posted on X, where one user tweeted: ‘I think the reason this was so upsetting is the fact that they have handled serious issues in a non offensive way before…
‘But two men joking about a horrific rape case is just not funny! At all!’
Another user tweeted: ‘I don’t think Michael wrote that failed Cornell joke.’
‘SNL sucks,’ a third user simply said in response to a tweet about the SNL clip.
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