Colin Jost was “forced” to mock his wife, Scarlett Johansson this weekend in his yearly “joke swap” segment on “Weekend Update.” Jost and his co-host Michael Che typically write shocking or offensive jokes for each other to read live on the air every December as a way of capping off the year. This weekend, Che found some new strategies to spice up the SNL segment, including a shot at Johansson.
As usual, the “Weekend Update” jokes in this segment used news stories as a starting point, so Jost read the headline: “New York state now allows movie theaters to serve alcohol,” then delivered Che’s punchline: “-which is how I’m finally able to enjoy my wife’s little art movies.” The screen then showed the poster for Marvel’s Black Widow starring his wife. Jost was laughing as he tried to deliver the joke, and the audience had one of their biggest reactions of the entire segment. Saturday Night Live has generally resisted jokes about Jost’s A-list marriage, making times like this all the more surprising.
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Che’s other new addition to the annual joke swap was a guest – poet, author and activist Dr. Hattie Davis. Che explained that Davis was a guest on SNL 46 years ago all the way back in Season 3, but he did not need to explain why she was there. Davis sat beside Jost to increase his embarrassment as he was forced to read jokes about race, gender and all kinds of other topics. To top it all off, it turns out Davis was not even a real person – she was an activist Che made up for this skit, played by actress Daphne Skeeter.
That made it all the more difficult for Jost to finish his joke about Johansson. Speaking to the camera, he said: “I’m kidding, honey. I love all of your movies. And if you ask me, you’re an even better Black Widow than Coretta Scott King.” Davis scowled right on cue for this joke. However, in fairness, she shot a few dirty looks at Che as well. At one point, Che had to read a joke written by Jost about Beyoncé.
“Last month Beyoncé posted a photo on Instagram of herself in a chrome Versace dress and platinum blonde hair that many people online described as ‘too white,’” he said. “In fact, Beyoncé looked so white that I was finally attracted to her.”
Johansson is not active on social media so she has not responded publicly to Jost’s joke from this weekend. SNL is now on its holiday hiatus but it will be back in 2024. Previous episodes are available to stream on Peacock.
