Colin Jost, asking the hard-hitting questions. Photo: Instagram//Screenshot
When Colin Jost took a job reporting on surfing at Teahupo’o for the Paris Olympics, it sort of came out of left field. Jost isn’t exactly the first person you think of when it comes to those who cover surfing, but as it turned out, Jost is an avid surf fan, and a surfer to boot. But he could have used an actual boot while he was in Tahiti.
Most fans know Jost for his work on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, where he sometimes brilliantly spoofs the news. And he actually did some great work in Tahiti before he met the reef, which didn’t agree with his immune system.
Jost revealed a bit of a kiss from said reef on his foot, an occurrence that most surfers know all too well. Jost was aware before he traveled over that this could happen, and he prophesied his fate in a press release.
“I’m honored to get to watch the best surfers in the world compete on one of the heaviest waves imaginable, and to help showcase the rich history of surfing in Tahiti,” he said. “And my Writer’s Guild Health Insurance is excited to see what the coral reef does to my back.”
It wasn’t his back that he needed to be worried about — it was his toes. Within a few days of his dust up with the reef, he was on a plane home. The accident occurred during a surf with Carissa Moore and John John Florence. They didn’t surf Teahupo’o proper — Jost wisely didn’t surf it when it was huge — but the reef got him nonetheless.
Though the experience seemed to be positive, it appears that this may have been the start of Jost’s troubles. Later, he posted a photo of his reef cut-covered feet to Instagram, with the caption, “This might ruin my WikiFeet score but I just arrived in Tahiti for the surfing Olympics and the reef was excited to greet me.”
According to rumor, the cuts on his foot required daily attention from on-site medical staff, who treated him for a staph infection. But the tropics famously like to make wounds fester, and Jost likely needed a bit of a drier climate to fully recover. Now that he’s home, he posted the little clip you see here, actually interviewing a wall of skulls… which, of course, is what Teahupo’o is known as.
“Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” the comic wrote.
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