Some lies are born of malice, some of convenience, and a rare few of pure professional devotion. Michael Che, by his own account, belongs to the third category. The Saturday Night Live Weekend Update co-anchor is standing firmly behind the fib he fed Stevie Wonder about Kenan Thompson, insisting it was less a lapse in honesty than an act of preservation. For a man whose career rests on a perfectly straight face, breaking it was simply not an option.

Stevie Wonder, it turns out, was the unwitting audience for the whole performance, and Che has no intention of walking it back.

Stevie Wonder, winner of 25 Grammy Awards, has a way of stirring the soul. Audiences have long responded to him with awe, inspiration and, fittingly enough, a good deal of wonder. Michael Che, however, responded with an alias. The SNL star admitted on GOAT Talk that when he came face to face with the music legend, he presented himself as Kenan Thompson. Most people, in the presence of greatness, manage a stammered compliment or a polite handshake. Che chose identity theft, and a colleague’s at that.

"I can't ruin the prestige," Che said in his defense.

While on GOAT Talk, Che explained that once the lie was uttered, there was no going back. Kam Patterson, for his part, played the supportive audience, hyping the stunt on the grounds that a good lie is a kind of magic. By that logic, Che was less a fraud than an illusionist.

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While Che did lie about his identity to Stevie Wonder, his achievements have no need of hiding.

Michael Che continues to shine, and the résumé does most of the talking. He has co-anchored Weekend Update alongside Colin Jost since 2014 and shared the SNL head writer title with him, meaning his fingerprints are on the sketches long before the cameras roll. His writing on the show has earned Emmy recognition, and his stand-up specials Michael Che Matters and Shame the Devil both found a home on Netflix. That Damn Michael Che then gave him an HBO Max sketch series, with his sensibility front and center.

Which is precisely why the Stevie Wonder episode is so delightfully unnecessary. A man with a head writer’s desk, an Emmy-nominated room behind him and a pair of Netflix specials hardly needs to borrow anyone’s name. Che could have walked into that encounter as himself and been perfectly welcome.

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What do you think about Michael Che's impromptu Kenan Thompson skit? Let us know in the comments.