Saturday Night Live co-head writer Michael Che has been widely criticized for sharing jokes about Simone Biles, who earlier this month withdrew from Olympic events to focus on her mental health.
“Man, i wanna make fun of simone biles,” said a since-removed post shared to the That Damn Michael Che creator’s Instagram Stories. From there, Che said he had “like 3 mins of simone biles jokes” in his head, with plans to “say them into a mic” Thursday evening at the club.
It’s unclear if that ultimately happened onstage somewhere, but the 38-year-old did share a number of jokes from other Instagram users via screenshot, including a joke about convicted sex offender Larry Nassar.
“Larry [Nassar] understands Simone Biles better than anyone,” the joke shared by Che reads. “He too had to quit doing what he loved at the pinnacle of his career because of mounting pressure.”
Nassar is a convicted sex offender who sexually abused hundreds of young athletes while working as the team doctor for the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team and other teams. Among the women who have spoken out about being abused by Nassar is Biles, who talked at length about the long-term impact of abuse earlier this month in an episode of Simone vs. Herself.
When sharing the joke, Che added in his own commentary. “Goddamn, thats rough,” wrote Che, who earlier this year tried to make a big deal out of the fact that some work of his was made the subject of a critic’s writing. “Absolutely tasteless. 9/10.”
Later, after sharing multiple jokes about Biles from others, Che tried to argue that he was hacked. As seen in the sampling of reactions below, that excuse wasn’t bought.
Complex has reached out to a rep for Che for comment and will update this post accordingly. At the time of this writing, the comedian’s Instagram page had become entirely empty.
