Saturday Night Live riffs on record-breaking rogue wave off B.C. coast

Weekend Update host Colin Jost makes a joke about the rogue wave recorded off Ucluelet, B.C., during the Feb. 26, 2022, episode of Saturday Night Live. (NBC)

The record-breaking rogue wave detected off the B.C. coast became fodder for Saturday Night Live's joke writers over the weekend.

The 17.6-metre swell took place near Ucluelet back in November 2020, but made headlines last month thanks to a new research paper from scientists at the University of Victoria, who believe it to be the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded. 

The massive wave was reported everywhere from the U.K. to Taiwan before making it onto Saturday Night Live's most recent Weekend Update segment.

"Researchers have observed a nearly 60-foot-tall rogue wave off the coast of British Columbia, which is the largest ever recorded. Researchers believe the wave was generated when yo mama fell overboard," Colin Jost quipped.

The rogue wave wasn't actually the tallest on record – another freak swell detected off Norway back in 1995 reached a height of 25.6 metres.

But the 2020 rogue wave is considered the most extreme because it nearly tripled the height of surrounding six-metre swells, whereas the 1995 rogue wave was surrounded by much larger 12-metre swells.

As for the actual causes of the unpredictable, monstrous waves – those involve a convergence of conditions on the water that experts warn is more likely to take place as a result of climate change. 

Rogue waves, which are sometimes known as killer waves, are often formed by two swells meeting while moving at different speeds in different directions, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"As these swells pass through one another, their crests, troughs, and lengths sometimes coincide and reinforce each other. This process can form unusually large, towering waves that quickly disappear," the NOAA website reads.

Sometimes, the conditions result in rogue waves lasting for minutes at a time – which can have deadly consequences for crews on nearby ships, or even bystanders on the shore.

With files from CTV News Vancouver Island's Todd Coyne