During the show’s “Weekend Update” segment, Colin congratulated Morocco on their victory over Portugal in the quarterfinals.
Morocco’s win made history as they became the only African nation ever to advance to the semifinal stage in the World Cup.
But what Colin said during the segment next had the audience groaning.
“As you guys saw today, Morocco beat Portugal in the quarterfinals of the World Cup,” he said. “It is, uh, the best World Cup performance by a team of Africans since the unpaid workers who built the stadiums.”
But despite the audience’s negative reaction to the joke, Colin was actually kind of right.
Last year, the Guardian reported that more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago.
Which means that there were even more workers on site building World Cup–related projects over the past decade.
World Cup laborers have hailed from around the world, including Africa, although the migrant workers in the report were from India, Nepal, Pakistan, and other South Asian countries.
So while the audience may not have totally agreed with Colin’s joke, he did actually make a pretty good point.
