‘Saturday Night Live’: Colin Jost Was Tricked Into Making a Joke About His Wife Scarlett Johansson
Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson got engaged in 2019 and married in October 2020. Jost hosts “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live with Michael Che, and Jost and Johansson first met when Johansson hosted SNL.
On Dec. 19, 2020, Kristen Wiig hosted the last episode of SNL before the end of the year. For the episode, Che and Jost kept up a holiday tradition and blindly read jokes written by the other. Because of a joke Che wrote, Jost ended up joking about Johansson.
Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost met on ‘SNL’
Johansson has hosted SNL on multiple occasions. The couple first met when Johansson hosted and Jost was a writer on the show, and Johansson’s first memory of Jost is from when she hosted in 2010. In the episode, Johansson performed a sketch that Jost wrote.
“It was some dumb parody that he had written, and he was in there partly directing this segment we had to do,” Johansson told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. “That’s my first memory of him. He seemed very confident at the time. I don’t know if he felt that way, but in that environment, if you’re not confident as a writer, your stuff just never gets produced.”
Johansson hosted SNL for the fifth time in 2017 and a few months later Jost and Johansson became an item. In 2019, Johansson’s publicist confirmed to Associated Press that the couple was engaged.
Colin Jost made a joke about Scarlett Johansson
Each year, Jost and Che write jokes for each other for SNL‘s holiday season episode. In addition to writing the jokes for each other, each co-anchor of “Weekend Update” has to read the joke for the first time while live on-air.
“We’re making each other read jokes live on-air that the other person has never seen before,” Che said.
“Yeah, fun, harmless, inoffensive jokes, right Che?” Jost asked.
“Yeah, man. Why don’t you go first though?” Che replied.
For the next few minutes, Che and Jost read out each other’s jokes. At the end of the segment, Jost was forced to read out a joke about Johansson.
“It was announced that Creed singer Scott Stapp will play Frank Sinatra in an upcoming movie, but the good news is Sammy Davis Jr. will be played by Scarlett Johansson,” Jost said before hiding his face in his hand.
The origin of Michael Che’s joke
Over the years, Johansson has received backlash for being the center of controversial casting. In 2017, she was accused of whitewashing for starring in Ghost in the Shell, a movie based on a Japanese manga series.
The next year in 2018, Johansson was cast as a transgender man in Rub & Tug. Due to heavy backlash, Johansson backed out of the film. In a 2019 interview with As If Magazine, Johansson defended the casting decisions.
“You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job,” she said. “There are a lot of social lines being drawn now, and a lot of political correctness is being reflected in art.”
