“SNL” star Colin Jost is finally sharing how that racy “Weekend Update” joke in December went over with his wife, Scarlett Johansson, whose vagina he compared on-air to a roast beef sandwich from Costco — to raucous laughter from the audience and himself alike.
“Scarlett was genuinely so shocked,” Jost told Jimmy Fallon on Monday’s “Tonight Show.”
The recurring segment in which Jost and his co-star Michael Che write jokes for each other — and then have to read them aloud no matter what — left Jost as stunned as his wife, who was backstage during the broadcast and reacted with a facial expression for the ages.
“I was obviously surprised by everything, but they gave her a heads-up,” Jost told Fallon. “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!’ You know, ‘Whatever, I’m open to it.’”
“I didn’t know where it was going, and then the graphic came up for [Costco],” he continued, prompting audible laughs of recognition from the audience. “So Scarlett is backstage like, ’Oh my God! That’s what it is?!”
The premise of the joke in question concerned Costco removing its roast beef sandwich from its menu, and with an image of the meal appearing onscreen behind Jost, he said at the time: “But I ain’t tripping, I be eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.”
Jost and Johansson tied the knot in 2020 and welcomed their son, Cosmo, in 2021.
Vianney Le Caer/Invision/Associated Press
Johansson, who mouthed an apparent “Oh my God” from backstage after Jost delivered the R-rated dig, previously admitted that the joke swaps are “brutal” and get “worse” every year — and joked that she blacks out “for that period of the night” every time.
Protect The Free Press
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
The Marvel actor nonetheless understands that this is all just comedy, however, and praised her husband on “Live with Kelly and Mark” last year as “a very, very, very great guy.”
“I’m extremely lucky,” Johansson said at the time. “He’s a kind person and he’s hilarious and thoughtful and loving and he’s a great dad and I love him. I feel very, very lucky. But he’s also, he’s got his naughty side. He keeps it interesting.”