Don’t Worry About His Social Media: Michael Che’s Comedy ‘Matters’

Michael Che has run afoul of the social media mobs before, as click-thirsty outlets have taken his Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts and thrown them back in his face.

But Che hasn’t backed down. Even if he has deactivated or changed the privacy settings on some of his accounts, Che continues to speak his mind and defend it at every turn, whether online, on TV as a Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live, or in his first stand-up special, Michael Che Matters, out now on Netflix.

Directed by Oz Rodriguez, executive produced by Lorne Michaels and produced by Broadway Video, the hour keeps everything within the SNL family. A recording over the opening credits implores Che to make his special special, while his regular opener (and longtime DJ/VJ) Cipha Sounds introduces him to the packed audience in a Greenpoint, Brooklyn warehouse, complete with a live band performing and walls lined with posters promoting the comedian – it imparts the impression that you really are spending “One Night Only” with Che in an exclusive occasion.

The warehouse acoustics also give Che’s voice more prominence and authority over the room, ensuring you’ll keep paying attention.

After an initial flurry of jokes about awkwardly interacting with homeless guys in New York City settings, Che turns his attention to racial language and whom and how to turn the phrase.

He may joke here that he could have named the hour, “Say What You Will About Hitler,” but what he really wants you to remember is that what Michael Che says matters. At least comedically. And he realizes plenty of things most people cannot or should not say in public, even if he still questions why white people continue to employ figures of speech regularly.

His special’s title also most obviously references the Black Lives Matters movement, which gained prominence over the past couple of years in the wake of multiple high-profile police shootings that killed unarmed black men.

After first making light of the unavoidable fact that black men and police officers have never had an easygoing relationship, Che quickly turns the focus on himself, acknowledging that his own brother serves in the police. In a timely coincidence of a reference, he notes: “I don’t fuck with him. It’s too hot. I only see him at Thanksgiving, and even then, ‘I’m only reaching for the potatoes.’ He hates that shit! He doesn’t find it funny at all. I think it’s hysterical.”

The situation nationwide? Not so funny.

“We can’t agree on anything anymore. As a country, we just can’t agree. We just fight about everything. We can’t even agree on Black Lives Matter,” Che says, before pointing out how ridiculous the counterargument of “All Lives Matter” is, not just because black people aren’t arguing for more than other residents, but merely the concept of civility. Not equal rights, but civil rights. “Can we just get civil?”

If you’re not convinced yet, Che will take it a step further. And then another step further.

Oh, yeah. He’ll go there. He’ll go anywhere.

Che will point out how the U.S. Constitution is for white people, how gorilla shootings should never be compared to the problems facing humans, how some religious teachings of Jesus don’t make sense, how our standards for Hell and Heaven seem to change with the times, and how homophobia reveals just how rational or irrational our fears may be. “We all have little things we have to get over,” he says. “If you’re not honest about it, how are you supposed to get better?”

Life is full of teachable moments, Che believes.

Perhaps the presidential election of Donald Trump will be the most teachable?

Che recorded this hour before Election Day, so some of his material was based upon the presumption of a Hillary Clinton victory, although he’s self-aware enough to open his political chunk with a laugh knowing his audience won’t like him for saying he still enjoys Trump. “I don’t think Donald Trump should be president, but I do think he’s a real shitty guy and he’s hilarious and he should be my best friend. Is that OK?” Che asks, taking the notion that some vote for a president they’d like to share a beer with and making it feel more personal to him. Barack Obama would scold Che for his off-color humor, while George W. Bush would laugh along and Bill Clinton would attempt to one-up him.

He similarly takes his presumption of a 2017 ruled by Hillary Clinton to logical and surreal extensions, joking about how white women already had taken over Brooklyn through gentrification. “Just took the scariest part of my childhood. Don’t know how the fuck they did it.”  So why not send an army of white women to the Middle East? “I’d gentrify the fuck out of ISIS.”

Just take another look at that Harlem catcalling video from a couple of years ago. Yes, the one Che mocked online and drew the wrath of bloggers and reporters alike about. And take a moment to reflect on what it really means.

“I made fun of it,” Che says. “I remember when Harlem was Harlem, and you couldn’t walk through there for 10 hours with a video camera, and leave with a video camera.”

That’s how safe white women have made Harlem now.

Besides, Che says he’d never catcall a woman. For one thing, the very act of complimenting a moving target invites humiliation; furthermore, he’s not a creep.

Until then, you’ll keep seeing and hearing Che’s take on the week’s headlines, live on TV most Saturday nights. And for an hour uninterrupted this holiday season on Netflix.

[Watch Michael Che Matters on Netflix]

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.