Colin Jost is explaining how his wife, Scarlett Johansson, really felt when he joked about her on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live.
It happened when Jost and cohost Michael Che were anchoring the “Weekend Update” segment in the last episode of the year, in which the two tell jokes that were written for them for by the other and that they haven’t seen. As viewers saw on the Dec. 21 episode, this time it referred to Marvel actress Johansson, who Jost married in 2020.
“Scarlett was genuinely so shocked,” Jost told the host on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “Because I was obviously surprised about everything, but they gave her a heads up. They were like, ‘Hey, would you be okay if Michael made a little, like, kind of vagina joke at some point?’ And she was like, ‘Sure! You know, whatever. I’m open to it.'”
Watch the full sketch below.
Jost couldn’t help but laugh as he read the words on the air last month. He said that he didn’t mind that roast beef sandwiches had been removed from Costco’s menu, because he’d “been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.”
In the moment, Jost laughed so hard he put his head in his hands. Johansson, who was watching backstage but was shown to the audience, dropped her mouth open.
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“So then, when it was like the opposite,” Jost said, “I didn’t know where it was going. And then the graphic came up.”
He continued, “So Scarlett is backstage like, ‘Oh, my God! That’s what it is.”
Jost and Johansson married in 2020 and welcomed a son, Cosmo, in August 2021. (She’s also mom to 10-year-old daughter Rose, whom she shares with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.)
Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson married in 2020. Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty
The couple met on one of the occasions when the star of movies including Jojo Rabbit, Lost in Translation, and Ghost World appeared on SNL. She’s hosted an impressive six times, so surely she can take a joke.
Jost, a “Weekend Update” anchor since 2014, agreed with Fallon that his delivery of the funny lines was “a legitimate, live moment” and that he wasn’t acting.
“I can’t act that well,” he deadpanned.
The Jan. 25 episode of SNL will be hosted by Timothée Chalamet, who plays Bob Dylan in the new biopic A Complete Unknown. He will also be the musical guest.
Saturday Night Live airs at Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC.
