’Tis the season for the annual Saturday Night Live joke swap on “Weekend Update,” and Michael Che couldn’t let the moment pass without including a reference to Colin Jost’s wife, Scarlett Johansson.
“Oh, God,” Jost, 41, quipped on Saturday, May 18, when he first saw his wife’s name pop up on the teleprompter before continuing. “ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in Her.”
He continued: “I’ve never bothered to watch because without that body, what’s the point of listening?”
Jost could barely keep a straight face while reading the joke aloud, quickly burying his face in his hands.
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Che, 41, laughed off Jost’s apparent discomfort before proclaiming that there was still more to the joke.
“So Rabbi Jill,” Jost continued, referring to the religious figure whom Che invited to sit in on the segment. “If you’re here, who’s controlling the weather?”
Jost and Che have co-anchored “Weekend Update” since 2014’s season 40 of SNL. Every Christmas — and to celebrate the end of the broadcast season like it was on Saturday, which Jake Gyllenhaal hosted — the pair trade jokes. Neither comedian can get a preview of what the other wrote before the live show, which has made Johansson, 39, nervous to watch in the past.
“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 during a July 2021 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. “And that’s the excitement of SNL and for all audiences, right? Because it’s absolutely live.”
Johansson added at the time: “But when you’re emotionally invested in it and not just entertained by it, it takes on a little bit of a different life.”
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The Marvel actress met Jost when she hosted an episode of SNL and they started dating in 2017. Johansson and Jost wed three years later, one year before welcoming son Cosmo. (Johansson also shares daughter Rose from a previous relationship.)
Since their wedding, Johansson has become a frequent source of joke material for Jost. Two weeks ago, he referenced Johansson as the breadwinner of the household.
“This year marks the first time since 2009 that a Marvel movie has not kicked off the summer movie season,” Jost deadpanned during the May 11 episode of SNL. “[It] better be a one-time thing because a lot of people rely on Marvel movies to pay for the ferries they bought.”
Jost had purchased a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat with former cast member Pete Davidson in 2022 that they plan to renovate and transform into an entertainment venue.
Saturday Night Live airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET.
