Colin Jost Got Uncomfortable When He Was Forced To Tell A Scarlett Johansson Joke On ‘SNL’ Weekend Update

Making Colin Jost uncomfortable on Weekend Update is a Saturday Night Live tradition at this point, with Kate McKinnon making it her personal mission to force Jost to break at the Update desk in recent weeks. But the best way to get him uncomfortable, it seems, is to bring up his wife Scarlett Johansson.

But Michael Che may be the new king of making things weird in the Jost household after he made his Weekend Update co-host tell an extremely awkward joke during the final episode of 2020. The moment came during the last segment of the program, where Che and Jost wrote each other jokes to tell with no notice on the broadcast. Jost made Che tell a Jeffery Epstein joke, while he made Jost joke about race relations, as he often does in these sorts of situations.

But in a setup that involved Creed frontman Scott Stapp playing Frank Sinatra in an upcoming movie, Che managed to get Jost to take a shot at his own wife when it comes to awkward casting situations. Here’s the joke isolated, if you need it:

“Creed singer Scott Stapp will play Frank Sinatra in an upcoming movie,” Jost said. “But the good news is Sammy Davis Jr. will be played by Scarlett Johansson.”

It’s the second time Jost was doubled over on the desk during the sketch, and an extremely quick out on the segment that may have been the best of the season. It’s a particularly biting joke because Johansson has been criticized for casting that’s been described as whitewashing in the past, both with playing an asian character in Ghost In The Shell and has a history of comments defending similar casting decisions. It certainly got a good reaction from Jost and in the audience at Studio 8H, but hopefully for Jost’s sake Johansson can handle a joke that certainly hits very close to home.