Saturday Night Live: Is ‘Rabbi Jill’ a real Rabbi?

Saturday Night Live
Photo: NBC

Tonight, Saturday Night Live brought back the Weekend Update joke swap, something that has become a bit of a tradition over the years. The last time this happened, Michael Che brought on a civil rights activist to make colin Jost uncomfortable. It was revealed later on that she was an actor hired to play the part, but it honestly didn’t feel like Colin knew that in the moment.

On this occasion, meanwhile, Colin did something different in bringing on Rabbi Jill for some of Colin’s jokes — which were, of course, offensive in a way that was somewhat different. But was Rabbi Jill actually a real Rabbi, or was this another part of the ongoing gag?

Well, here’s the thing — we actually do believe that Jill is a real Rabbi! She is from the Actors’ Temple and so there was a different sort of discomfort here if Colin knew she actually was a real Rabbi. (There is a chance that he’d heard of her previously, or seeing that puppet may have caused a certain part of him to die inside.)

The irony in all of this is that despite all of the efforts, we’re not sure if some of the jokes lasted in the same way that they did the last time Che tried to make him uncomfortable with an activist. Colin actually had the best joke tonight written for Che, when he tried to create a beef between his co-anchor and Kendrick Lamar. (This is one of the few times in the history of the show we’ve seen Che legitimately afraid to read a joke.)

We do still hope that the joke swap is a tradition for this show that never goes away — it hits almost every time, mostly because both Michael and Colin know exactly what they are getting into. Not all the jokes land, but the ones that do are extraordinarily funny.

Related Be sure to get some more news on Saturday Night Live, including highlights from the rest of the show

What did you think about Rabbi Jill and the Saturday Night Live joke swap this time?

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