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Colin Jost Reveals How Scarlett Johansson Felt About 'SNL' Joke Swap
It sounds like no one was more shocked by Colin Jost's Saturday Night Live "Joke Swap" segment about his wife Scarlett Johansson than Scarlett Johansson herself.
Jost discussed the semi-annual tradition—in which he and his "Weekend Update" co-anchor Michael Che are forced to read jokes they write for each other—during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday. In the most recent instance of the segment to close out 2024, Che set up his colleague to read a joke, live on-air, comparing his wife's genitalia to Arby's roast beef. All the while, poor Johansson watched helplessly from backstage.
When asked whether he was in trouble with Johansson over the joke, Jost quipped: "I’m in trouble, I think, with a lot of people. Scarlett was genuinely so shocked."
"I was obviously surprised by everything, but they gave her a head's up," the 42-year-old explained. "They were like, ‘Hey, would you be OK if Michael made a little, like, kind of vagina joke at some point?' And she was like, 'Sure, whatever, I’m open to it.' And so it was like the opposite, I didn’t know where it was going, and then the graphic came up for Arby's."
"And so Scarlett was backstage like, ‘Oh my god, that’s what it is!'" Jost recalled. Fallon pointed out that it was a "legitimate live moment," clarifying that Jost wasn't acting in the moment. "I was not—I can’t act that well," he joked.
But that wasn't even the only joke Che wrote for Jost about Johansson. Previously in the segment, he noted that the actress had recently turned 40.
"I wanna dedicate this next joke to my boo, Scarlett Johansson," Jost read from the teleprompter. "Hey, boo, y’all know Scarlett just celebrated her 40th birthday, which means, I’m about to get up out of there."
We can only imagine that he's already planning his revenge on Che for the next time.
