Michael Che tricks Colin Jost into cracking joke about wife Scarlett Johansson in Weekend Update

‘Weekend Update’ co-hosts took part in their annual joke swap during the SNL season 49 finale

Saturday Night Live stars Colin Jost and Michael Che took turns cracking some hilarious and shocking jokes in their annual “Weekend Update” joke swap.

During the segment, which aired on Saturday 18 May, the “Weekend Update” co-hosts each wrote jokes for the other to deliver without seeing them beforehand. The segment has become a fan favourite, with this year’s skit marking the end of SNL’s 49th season.

In line with the tradition, Che tricked Jost into poking fun at his wife Scarlett Johansson, causing Jost to squirm in discomfort. “ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in Her,” a nervous Jost told viewers. “Which I’ve never bothered to watch, because without that body what’s the point of listening?”

The father-of-two immediately burst into laughter, while also hiding his face in his hands out of embarrassment.

Elsewhere during “Weekend Update”, Jost made Che challenge rapper Kendrick Lamar amid his rap beef with Drake. “Speaking of b**ches, I want to call up the biggest b**ch of all, Kendrick Lamar,” Che said, shaking his head at the cue cards and exclaiming, “No!”

“Your war with Drake may be over, but your war with Michael Che is just beginning. So to quote Hamilton, ‘Shoot your shot, player,’” he added. The comedian then commended his “Weekend Update” co-host for the surprise jab, telling Jost: “That was pretty well done, man.”

This isn’t the first time Jost’s relationship with Johansson has been the subject of some amusing moments on SNL. Back in 2020, Che once again tricked Jost into mocking his wife during their signature joke swap by making a quip about the actor’s past casting controversies. In the joke, Jost reported on Creed frontman Scott Stapp’s casting as Frank Sinatra in a Ronald Reagan biopic, along with the punchline: “But the good news is Sammy Davis Jr will be played by Scarlett Johansson.”

The Black Widow star came under fire for portraying a Japanese character in the 2017 live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. She also ended up withdrawing from the film Rub and Tug after facing backlash when she was cast as a trans male gangster.

In 2021, SNL alum Jason Sudeikis also teased Jost about his marriage to Johansson when he appeared as the devil during a “Weekend Update” segment. “I’ve been busy, baby,” he told Jost, taking credit for some of the most terrible developments of the past few years.

When the host asked him what he had been working on lately, Sudeikis’s devil replied: “Oh, man, so many little side projects. Earthquakes, got some killer storms, Instagram for kids – trying to get it off the ground. Oh! And the climate.”

Later on during the skit, Sudeikis’s character asked Jost to take back a line, jokingly threatening him: “You take it back, Colin, or I swear, I will go back on our deal to let you marry Scarlett.”

Jost and Johansson met back in 2010, when the Lost in Translation star hosted SNL for the first time. The pair then sparked up a relationship in 2017, following Johansson’s divorce from French journalist Romain Dauriac. They announced their engagement in 2019.

In October 2020, the couple tied the knot during an intimate ceremony amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Less than one year later, Jost announced they had welcomed their first child together, a son named Cosmo.

Johansson also shares her eight-year-old daughter Rose with ex Dauriac. The former couple were married from 2014 to 2017. The Asteroid City star was previously married to actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011.