Saturday Night Live: Colin Jost Makes Fun of Wife Scarlett Johansson in Epic Weekend Update Burn

Saturday Night Live writer and “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost was roped into taking a shot at his wife, Scarlett Johansson, on the sketch comedy series’s most recent episode. It is a tradition for Jost and his fellow “Weekend Update” host, Michael Che, on the last episode of SNL of the year to write jokes for each other to deliver live on the air without reading them ahead of time. This year, Che set up Jost to make a joke about Johansson’s history of controversial castings. The joke’s setup notes that Creed frontman Scott Stapp was cast as Frank Sinatra in an upcoming movie. The punchline is that Johansson would play Sammy Davis Jr. You can watch the bit below.

Johannsson received criticism for play the lead role in the live-action Ghost in the Shell movie, an adaptation of a manga and anime set in Japan. She also backed out of a role as a transgender person in the film Rub and Tug after being similarly criticized. She made a controversial statement about the roles during an interview with As If Magazine.

“You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job,” she said in the conversation with artist David Salle. “I feel like it’s a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions. I think society would be more connected if we just allowed others to have their own feelings and not expect everyone to feel the way we do.”

She later released a statement to clarify those comments. “An interview that was recently published has been edited for click bait and is widely taken out of context,” her statement said. “The question I was answering in my conversation with the contemporary artist, David Salle, was about the confrontation between political correctness and art. I personally feel that, in an ideal world, any actor should be able to play anybody and Art, in all forms, should be immune to political correctness. That is the point I was making, albeit didn’t come across that way. I recognize that in reality, there is a wide spread discrepancy amongst my industry that favors Caucasian, cis gendered actors and that not every actor has been given the same opportunities that I have been privileged to. I continue to support, and always have, diversity in every industry and will continue to fight for projects where everyone is included.”

Photo by Rich Fury/VF20/Getty Images for Vanity Fair