Colin Jost might need to clarify things with his wife, Scarlett Johansson, after the latest episode of Saturday Night Live.
During the show’s winter finale on Saturday, December 21, Jost, 42, and Weekend Update co-host Michael Che participated in the show’s biannual tradition of reading jokes they had never seen before.
These prompts are designed to get the comedians into awkward situations, and this year’s edition was no exception, particularly when it came to jokes about Johansson, 40.
Johansson, who appeared in the opening monologue, watched the Weekend Update segment live, with a camera trained on her face to capture her reactions as Jost nervously began reading his cue cards.
“Hey boo, y’all know Scarlett just celebrated her 40th birthday,” Jost said, already appearing concerned about what was coming next. “Which means I’m about to get up out of there!”
“Nah, nah. I’m just playing,” he continued, trying to recover. “We just had a kid together, and y’all ain’t see no pictures of him yet ’cause he Black as hell.”
The camera then cut to Johansson, who was seen shaking her head and grimacing.
Later in the segment, Jost joked about Costco removing their roast beef sandwich from their menu, adding, “But I ain’t tripping, I be eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid,” before lowering his face in his hands in apparent horror. Johansson, visibly shocked, mouthed, “Oh my God,” from backstage.
This isn’t the first time Jost has poked fun at his relationship for the sake of comedy. During the season 49 finale in May, he made a remark during Weekend Update, saying, “ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in Her.
Which I’ve never bothered to watch, because without that body, what’s the point of listening.” The joke referenced a legal dispute between Johansson and OpenAI, following which she threatened legal action against the company.
Johansson and Jost began dating in 2017, although they first met in 2006 when Jost was a writer on SNL and Johansson hosted an episode.
The couple married in October 2020 after three years of dating and welcomed their son, Cosmo, in 2021. Johansson also has a daughter, Rose Dorothy, 10, from a previous marriage.
