Michael Che mocked the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in his new Netflix special, Shot In Minnesota, devoting [1] more than two minutes to jokes about the killing as the Minneapolis audience laughed along.
The Saturday Night Live star opened the routine by invoking Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and pretending to cry onstage. “I might get emotional, I feel like Erika Kirk on this stage,” Che said before the display.
Che then added, “That’s no disrespect to the Kirks, by the way, I don’t know if the Kirks are here.” The performance quickly moved into an extended sequence centered on Kirk, his supporters and the circumstances surrounding his death.
The Weekend Update comedian claimed he had not known who Kirk was before the assassination. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t even know who Charlie Kirk really is. I found out about that nigga the day he got shot,” Che told the crowd, drawing cheers and laughter.
Che said people began contacting him after Kirk was killed and asking whether he would joke about it on Saturday Night Live. He recounted the messages while continuing to build the routine around his professed confusion over Kirk’s identity.
“And the only reason I found out about it was because people kept messaging me, they was like, ‘Charlie Kirk got shot. You gonna make fun of him on Saturday?’” the Weekend Update co-anchor said during the special.
Che then pretended to confuse Charlie Kirk with Captain Kirk from Star Trek. “I thought they was talking about the dude from Star Trek, I was like, ‘What?! They shot Captain Kirk?!’” he said.
The comedian extended that premise by discussing the reactions he claimed to have seen on his timeline. “I didn’t know who that nigga was. Then I saw on my timeline all these older white dudes crying in trucker hats. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, these don’t look like Trekkies,’” Che said.
Che also made a claim about how Kirk’s conservative supporters reacted to the killing, portraying them as blaming black people. That suggestion is a blatant falsehood, and he stated that conservatives never blamed black people for Kirk’s assassination.
“They didn’t sound like Trekkies, neither. They was like, ‘They shot Charlie. You niggers are going to pay for this!’” Che said. He followed that line by asking, “Black people shot Captain Kirk? For what? I didn’t even know we was mad at him.”
The routine then shifted to Utah, where Kirk was killed. Che continued the Captain Kirk premise while bringing former NBA player Karl Malone into the bit because, as Che noted, the shooting happened in Utah.
“Then they said he got shot in Utah. I was like, ‘There ain’t no niggas in Utah,” Che said. He then asked, “Who shot him? Karl Malone?”
Che told the audience that he later saw a video of the assassination and immediately regretted watching it. “I was baffled. Then I saw there was a video, and I was like, ‘Maybe that’ll clear things up.’ I wish I did not see that shit,” he said.
“I don’t know if you saw it, but it’s fucked up,” the Saturday Night Live writer continued. Despite that declaration, Che proceeded to turn the moment of Kirk’s death into another punchline for the live crowd.
“He’s in Utah, and somebody in the crowd asked him a question about gun violence. And I guess he got it wrong?” Che said, referring to the moment Kirk was assassinated. The joke produced intense laughter from audience members at the Netflix taping.
Che then delivered the routine’s most graphic comparison. “They shot that nigga like Squid Games. I was like, ‘Whoa. What the fuck has gotten into Karl Malone?’” he said, once again combining Kirk’s killing with the continuing Karl Malone joke.
Michael Che made fun of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. And look his his audience laugh and jeer. Disgusting people.
The reason why comedians aren’t funny anymore is because it’s just leftists acting ghoulishly under the guise of comedy. https://t.co/M0xAV1WXp0
— Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask (@ARmastrangelo) October 27, 2026 [2]
Elsewhere in Shot In Minnesota, Che repeatedly used the word “retarded” while referring to President Donald Trump and conservatives. The special therefore included attacks beyond the extended Kirk segment, though the assassination routine supplied its most ghoulish material.