'He did good': Michael Che on Elon Musk's turn at 'SNL,' freedom of his new HBO Max comedy series

Some of Michael Che's jokes are just for him, even when delivering them "live from New York."

On May 8, the "SNL" co-head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor made a crack about a state's new legislature while commenting on police brutality: “South Carolina lawmakers voted to add firing squad to its execution methods," he began. "And I think it’s nice that people will finally get the chance to be shot after they’re found guilty.”

Though clever, it didn't elicit laughs, but instead "ooohs" from an uncomfortable audience. At the desk, Che smirked. He anticipated the reaction, he tells USA TODAY, because it echoed the response at a rehearsal. Still, he thought to himself, "I like that joke. I'm gonna keep it." A few compliments and bits of encouragement from his colleagues were all the affirmation he needed to deliver the line. "I always say there’s some jokes for you, and there’s some jokes for me," he explains, "and I really wanted to tell that one."

The 37-year-old comedian's jokes are also showcased in his six-part HBO Max series "That Damn Michael Che," now streaming. Each episode focuses on a theme: romantic relationships, vaccine hesitation, the high cost of health care.

The strongest, perhaps, is the series debut episode "Policin'" which features Che trapped in an elevator with a white "ally" played by Cecily Strong (other "SNL" co-stars Colin Jost and Heidi Gardner also appear in the series) and a spoof public service announcement from the NYPD giving tips on how to avoid getting shot by the cops. "I can't tell you how many times I've seen a gun when it was something else," an officer says, advising people to always keep their hands up. "Like we teach in the academy, if it looks like a gun, it's a gun."

Che chatted about his new show, reviewed centibillionaire Elon Musk's hosting performance on May 8 and a controversial "Gen Z Hospital" sketch, which some thought erased contributions of Black people to the culture. (In the segment, a group of Gen Zers process a friend's health ordeal in a waiting room using terms popular on social media, including "tea," "sus," "go off," "pressed" and other words recognized as African American vernacular English. Ego Nwodim was the only Black cast member to perform the sketch.)

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Question: How do you think Musk did as host?

Michael Che: For somebody that’s not a professional comedian at all, I think he did OK. It was kind of cool. Our job is very hard to do, so bringing anybody in (who) doesn't do this all the time, (who's) not a comedian, is a tall order for anybody. I think he did good.

Q: When thinking of this season, what moments stand out – good or bad?

Che: Oh my goodness, so many moments stand out to me, but I think the biggest overall thing is just that we were able to complete it. When we first found out about the season, it was kind of like, "Well, how many are we gonna honestly be able to do?" To get through all of them, or get through almost all of them – knock on wood – is pretty incredible. But for me, the Dave Chappelle episode right after the election just takes the cake.

Q: Was it his monologue, a sketch, the episode as a whole? What's sticking out in your mind?

Che: Selfishly to me, it’s the Uncle Ben sketch because I remember him calling me on, like, a Wednesday night after we’ve already read the sketches, and he was like, "I got this idea for an Uncle Ben sketch. Could you write it?" And literally, we wrote that in a day ... and then we made some changes after we ran through it, and to watch it come together that quickly was crazy, even (by) "SNL" standards.

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Q: What motivated you to do "That Damn Michael Che?"

Che: I had a meeting with my lawyer talking about, just out of frustration, wanting a show that I could have more control over. Because at "SNL," it's a huge committee – it's four head writers, it's Lorne (Michaels), there’s producers, there’s cast. There’s not much real estate for personal expression. Even on "Update," I don't typically like to do anything that’s too personal. This show is my way of taking what I learned from ("SNL"), and doing it the way I just wanted to do it. I just wanted to do what I thought was personally funny and some other people would like. It wasn’t an answer to "SNL." It was just conceptually a little bit more freedom.

Q: Just days after you put out a show speaking to the Black experience, an "SNL" sketch you wrote – "Gen Z Hospital" – was criticized for cultural appropriation. What was that like? Do you pay attention to that criticism?

Che: I didn’t really understand the cultural appropriation part of it, partly because that wasn't the joke at all. It was more about how this generation of kids talk like this in every scenario, in every situation and how bizarre it sounds in actuality, as opposed to reading it on Twitter. That was where the joke was coming from. But like I said, some sketches aren’t for you, and some are for me.

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Q: So that was a sketch for you?

Che: That was a sketch that I thought was funny. And the funny thing about it was it didn't work at dress (rehearsal). And I remember me and (writer Gary Richardson) were on the bleachers watching, and it really didn’t play well. We were both like, "Well, that’s the end of our night, I’ll see you at Update (laughs)." It was that kind of thing. And then when we saw (the sketch) in the actual show, we were like, "Uh, how do we fix it?" And it was like, well, just let it ride because it’s so privilege-heavy that you either like it or not. I have tons and tons of messages from people who loved it and then tons of messages from people who were so upset by it.

Q: You said you were going to interrupt your "Weekend Update" co-anchor Colin Jost's wedding to actress Scarlett Johansson, but you backed off from that idea at the ceremony. Did you have anything prepared, and if so, what?

Che: I didn’t have anything prepared. If I was going to interrupt it and ruin it, I wanted it to come from the heart so I didn’t want to prepare anything. I wanted to ruin it from the bottom of my heart and just speak freely.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk 'did good' hosting 'SNL,' says 'Update' anchor Michael Che