“Well, I’m actually fine, and despite what big media conspiracies would have you believe, I wasn’t ‘sent home’ from the Olympics. NBC simply looked at my foot, declared me legally a leper, and exiled me here, to the island of Malta!”
Jost noted that while the European country doesn’t have “many Olympians competing this year,” it did have a casino, where he blew “the hundreds of dollars I’ve earned as a surfing correspondent.”
“But the real reason I’m in Malta, of course, is because it was the site of 10 separate bubonic plague outbreaks,” he quipped, “so they thought I would fit right in.”
He said in an Instagram video posted Sunday that NBC had “exiled” him to Malta.colinjost/Instagram
The comedian broadcasts from Malta in a video shared on Instagram Sunday.Instagram / @colinjost
The comedian signed off his video thanking Tahitians for their warmth and hospitality but more importantly for “only occasionally looking at my foot and whispering, ‘Chupacabra!’”
NBC flew Jost to Tahiti to commentate on the surfing competition, but his trip was cut short after he severely injured his foot by stepping on a coral reef.
“I actually have been walking in place in this yard because if I stand still, ants begin crawling inside the wounds,” he shared on-air. “Not something I anticipated.”
Jost poses with an Olympics mascot in Tahiti in July.Colin Jost/Instagram
The funnyman gives fans a glimpse of the surfing conditions in a video shared in July.Colin Jost/Instagram
Jost’s infection worsened, so medics needed to tend to him daily to make sure it healed properly; however, he then developed an ear infection.
“So I’m now on three different medications — four if you count piña coladas,” he quipped during a July broadcast.
Jost’s mounting ailments and sudden departure prompted the funnyman to issue a statement that “rumors” of his “death have been greatly exaggerated.”