On March 15, Daily Beast reporter Samantha Allen wrote a piece titled “Dear Ricky Gervais and Other Comics, Your Caitlyn Jenner ‘Jokes’ Are Getting Old.” Allen took issue with how often successful comedians used transphobic jokes in their comedy, citing the work of Ricky Gervais, Bill Burr, and Michael Che. She wrote:
Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che talks in Michael Che Matters about realizing that the slur “tranny” is “hurtful” after a transgender friend asked him, “How would you like it if I called you ‘blacky’?”
Che could have just mugged for the audience, or put a quick pin on the joke, but he goes for the easy laugh he knows he can get by simply repeating the slur: “Well played, tranny, well played.”
Che did not take kindly to the criticism, which was minor, considering the scope of the piece. In a series of now-deleted Instagram stories, screencapped by Paste Magazine assistant comedy editor Seth Simons, Che not only responded directly to Allen’s piece but also drafted an email to her and directed his fans write to her to email address.
Despite her email address being public, Che’s post read like an invitation to flood Allen’s inbox with hate mail. And not long after it appeared, Simons was being targeted by Che on Instagram as well.
“The way I see it, both Michael Che and I were doing our jobs: he recorded a stand-up special and I wrote an article. Suffice it to say, his job is way better than mine,” Allen wrote to Jezebel in response to a request for comment. “As for the email, I can confirm that I did not receive it in either my inbox or my spam folder. I found out that I was featured in his Instagram story when I started getting emails from his fans.”
While perhaps on the lower end of the spectrum of online harassment, Che’s actions echo other ways in which male comedians often use their platform to belittle and harass women online. Alec Baldwin deleted his Twitter account in late 2017 after essentially mansplaining sexual harassment to actor and Weinstein victim Asia Argento, but continues to threaten people with lawsuits through the account for his foundation. Comedian Kurt Metzger, who formerly came under fire for his comments on sexual assault, has also harassed his critics on Twitter before.
Che’s actions echo other ways in which male comedians often use their platform to belittle and harass women online.
Che’s apparent sensitivity to criticism, particularly criticism written by women, is unfortunately far from new. In 2013, after the site Black Girl Nerds published a piece titled “The Trouble With SNL’s White Christmas” by Faye McCray, Che reportedly called the site “lazy and unsuccessful” on Twitter. “I haven’t been a fan of his since,” editor-in-chief Jamie Broadnax wrote in an email to Jezebel describing the incident.
“Honestly, I thought it was a great opportunity to engage in productive debate. The article came from a place of honesty and reflection,” McCray told Jezebel via email. “Instead, he made personal attacks on me, the editor and the publication. I was disappointed in him but not surprised given the insensitivity of the skit.”
And in 2014 after a viral video spotlighting one woman’s experience being catcalled made the rounds, Che posted an apology to women on Instagram for calling them “beautiful” and compared street harassment to what he experiences as a famous comedian who gets recognized on the street. After people criticized his comments online, he seemed to double down. “I wanna apologize for my last apology,” he wrote, seemingly sarcastically, in a second Instagram post. “sometimes i forget that i belong to all of you now, and that any thought i have should be filtered through you, and receive ur approval.”
Despite the fact that Che is a successful comedian with a position as co-head writer on Saturday Night Live, he has repeatedly and publicly denigrated women, some up-and-coming writers, over the past few years in ways that read as incongruous for someone of his level of fame and status in the New York City comedy community. And while online harassment is common not just for journalists but women generally—particularly on Twitter, which has a pervasive and largely unaddressed problem with MRAs and white supremacists targeting women of color, including Che’s coworker Leslie Jones—Che’s choice to go after women with far less power and reach is an inequitable and frankly petty use of that fame.
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