'Saturday Night Live' 's Michael Che Criticized for Sexist Comments on Viral Street Harassment Video

The "Weekend Update" anchor has since deleted his post

Published on October 30, 2014 08:05 PM

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Saturday Night Live funnyman Michael Che started a social media firestorm when he joked about street harassment on Facebook.

“i wanna apologize to all the women that ive harassed with statements like ‘hi’ or ‘have a nice day’ or ‘you’re beautiful.’ i cant image what that must feel like,” he wrote in the post, which has since been deleted but Business Insider captured in a screenshot.

“the closest thing I’ve experienced is maybe when a girl recognizes me from tv and they say things like “AHHHH!! OH MY GOD!! SNL SNL SNL!! TAKE A PICTURE!! TAKE A PICTURE!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! WHATS YOUR NAME AGAIN?! THANK YOU!! WAIT SAY SOMETHING FUNNY!!’ “, he continued, “but even that is nothing like the harassment of having a complete stranger tell me to ‘smile.’ ”

His comments refer to the viral video released by Hollaback! that shows a woman being catcalled more than 100 times in 10 hours as she silently walked down the street with a hidden camera.

Che, 31, began writing for SNL in 2013 before getting his big break on camera as a “Weekend Update” anchor this season. He has defended his remarks with more humor, re-Tweeting critics and cracking, “can we all agree on cookies!! i think cookies are GREAT!!” on Instagram.

“i think some of u are misunderstanding that post,” he Tweeted on Wednesday. “im simply just making fun of something that is important to a lot of people.”

His Twitter bio? “satire.”

SNL is not commenting on the controversy.

Do you think Che took the joke too far? Sound off in the comments below.