Scarlett Johansson Dreads a Tradition on ‘SNL Weekend Update’

Scarlett Johansson is married to Saturday Night Live Weekend Update cohost Colin Jost. This sometimes means she must endure jokes that can be either cringeworthy or directed at her.

During her Thursday visit to The Kelly Clarkson Show, Johansson admitted that she “blacked out” during one particular segment, the annual joke swap between Jost and Michael Che.

“We need to go into like, witness protection after that night,” Johansson joked. “Like, I am absolutely terrified we’re gonna be targeted. It’s so bad. I black out for that period of the night. I don’t — I actually don’t remember it.”

The Weekend Update annual joke swap segment is straightforward: Che and Jost take turns reading jokes written by the other. Che often tricks Jost into cold reading offensive jokes, some mentioning Johansson.

In May, Che made Jost joke about OpenAI’s voice feature stealing Johansson’s voice.

“ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in Her,” Jost said. “Which I’ve never bothered to watch, because without that body, what’s the point of listening?”

“That’s like a tame version,” Johansson said.

Clarkson agreed: “It’s Daytime television, we kept it tame.”

Johansson later described the segment as “brutal,” adding, “I feel like every year it gets worse, it’s just terrible.”

Of the Her joke, she said, “It’s painful. I mean, I really do — I actually don’t remember that segment. I fully blacked out.”