Talk about awkward. On Saturday Night Live, "Weekend Update" segment co-host Colin Jost unwittingly mocked his wife, MCU star Scarlett Johansson. The joke at Johansson's expense occurred during the December 19 Christmas episode hosted by SNL alum Kristen Wiig. Among the highlight's from the recent Saturday episode was the introduction of cast regular Alex Moffat as the new Joe Biden following Jim Carrey's exit from the role.
On the final SNL episode of 2020, Jost and Che reprised a favorite bit that sees the co-hosts swap jokes. The big twist here is that the jokes Che and Jost write for one another heavily toe the line and often see them making (very) borderline racist, sexist, or otherwise inappropriate jokes. Last night's edition of the annual joke swap was no different, with Che reading jokes about the Hocus Pocus sequel and spending time at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion. Meanwhile, Jost was saddled with three jokes involving the Black community. The final joke of the swap saw Jost reporting on Creed frontman Scott Stapp's casting in the upcoming Ronald Reagan biopic as crooner Frank Sinatra. The punchline went a little something like this: "But the good news is Sammy Davis Jr. will be played by Scarlett Johansson."
The joke at Johansson's expense pulls from real and legitimate concerns over the kinds of roles the actor has sought out in the past. Johansson rightfully received scrutiny for playing a canonically Japanese character in the 2017 live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. Later, she stepped down from her involvement in the based-on-a-true-story film Rub and Tug after being cast to play a fictional version of Dante "Tex" Gill, a trans male gangster living in 1970s Pittsburgh. Johansson, a cisgender woman, issued a statement acknowledging why it was wrong for her to play Gill, but only after a large public outcry emerged around her casting.
All episodes of the 2020 portion of Saturday Night Live Season 46 are now available to stream on Hulu and Peacock. Watch Colin Jost and Michael Che trade awful jokes below. For more, find out when SNL might come back in 2021.