Michael Che Wipes Instagram After Simone Biles Joke Backlash

Michael Che has come under fire for making cruel jokes about Simone Biles on Instagram.

The Saturday Night Live comedian posted a series of messages on Thursday evening about the gymnast, who withdrew from the team and all-around finals at the Tokyo Olympics this week for mental health reasons.

In a string of Instagram stories that have since been deleted, Che wrote about wanting to make jokes about Biles and then shared jokes submitted by others, along with ratings.

His first story read: "man, I wanna make fun of Simone Biles."

He continued: "I got like 3 mins of Simone Biles jokes in my head. Im going to the cellar tonight to say them into a microphone. As the dorky kids say I'm choosing violence."

He then received a number of responses, which he reposted on Instagram stories.

One of the responses included a joke about Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics doctor convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women.

Che rated this joke a 9/10, before rating a racist joke about Biles as 8/10.

Twitter account Baller Alert has shared screenshots of some of the jokes to Twitter before they were deleted.

Che also posted an Instagram story claiming his account had been hacked.

"Mannnnn, i got hacked today. Can't believe they got me," read the story, which was also shared on Twitter by Baller Alert.

"Yall know i only do jokes about whites and cops. S'all good now i changed my password and everything.."

The comedian then referenced the latest controversy about rapper DaBaby's homophobic comments, adding: "yall hear about dababy tho..? that's crazy. iight see yall at church. Imma get there early."

Che's Instagram account is now empty apart from one post about the NBA Draft.

Che, a former correspondent on The Daily Show, has been condemned on social media for the jokes about Biles, particularly the reference to Nassar.

"Larry Nassar sexually assaulted over 300 gymnasts including Simone Biles. Jokes about this immense violence are never okay. @hbomax @nbcsnl why is Michael Che still on your roster?" tweeted activist Farrah Khan.

Writer Delia Harrington added: "Michael Che comes for people he thinks he can get away with dunking on. Trans women, Black women, sexual assault survivors. Judging by his flimsy 'I got hacked' defense, it seems he had no idea how beloved Simone Biles is, or just how messed up it is to share a Larry [Nassar] joke."

Podcaster Carolyn Hinds wrote: "Michael Che—and all of these tacky ass clowns who call themselves comedians need to keep Simone's name out their damb mouths."

"Black Women BEEN told you about Michael Che... but once again y'all ignored us. But COMEDY right!? F***** hack," said activist Leslie Mac.

Newsweek has reached out to Che's representatives for comment.