’Tis the season for Colin Jost and Michael Che’s annual Saturday Night Live joke swap and, predictably, there was a not-so-subtle mention of Scarlett Johansson.
“Tonight is our Christmas show, and we have a tradition,” Che, 42, began during their “Weekend Update” segment on Saturday, December 20. “Colin [and I] give each other jokes to read that neither of us have ever seen before.”
Jost, 43, however, revealed that he didn’t prepare any jokes this time around.
“That’s interesting because you specifically said that we were not doing it this year,” Jost said. “You know that I didn’t write any jokes for you.”
Che, with a laugh, told his coanchor to read aloud his newly crafted jokes instead — including one about Jost’s wife, 41-year-old Johansson.
“New research shows that millions of women leave the workplace due to menopause, which means there’s only a couple years left on my gravy train,” Jost said, stifling a laugh, as a pic of Johansson was shown on the screen. “My girl already be like, ‘Colin, I’m warm. Colin, I’m sweating.’ Bitch, you having a hot flash, but don’t worry about me. I’ve got a backup [because] they don’t call Wednesday ‘hump day’ for nothing.”
As another photo of Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega flashed on the screen, Jost subsequently buried his head in his hands.
“Wow, Colin, I wouldn’t have done that one,” Che quipped, referring to the insinuation that Jost could leave Johansson for Ortega, 23.
Jost succinctly replied, “Wednesday?!” and started coughing. Che quickly asked his pal whether he “was OK” before continuing on with the live broadcast.
Jost and Johansson have been together since 2017, getting married three years later in 2020. Since then, the Marvel actress has become consistent fodder for SNL jokes.
“I now rarely watch [SNL] without having a sense of … not overwhelming panic, just like a slight underwhelming panic because I just feel like at any moment something’s going to fall apart,” Johansson previously said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in July 2021. “And that’s the excitement of SNL and for all audiences, right? Because it’s absolutely live.”
She continued, “When you’re emotionally invested in it and not just entertained by it, it takes on a little bit of a different life.”
Johansson did watch Jost and Che’s 2024 joke swap live after appearing on the variety show in other sketches but wasn’t pleased her husband was forced to make a crude joke about her vagina.
“Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu,” Jost read aloud during the December 2024 holiday episode. “I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.”
Johansson, who gave birth to the pair’s son in 2021, was taken aback by the joke. (Johansson also is the mother of daughter Rose from a previous relationship.)
“I was, obviously, surprised by everything, but they gave her a heads-up,” Jost said on a January episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “They were like, ‘Hey, would you be OK if Michael made a little, like, kind of vagina joke at some point?’”
According to Jost, Johansson was “open to” the mention.
“I didn’t know where it was going and then the graphic came up for Arby’s,” Jost recalled. “Scarlett is backstage, like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s what it is?’”
Che later issued a public apology to Johansson during a May episode of SNL.
Saturday Night Live airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET.
