Poor Scarlett Johansson blacks out at every Weekend Update joke swap

This is the risk you run when you marry a dangerous, edgy comedian like [checks notes] um, Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost? To be honest, Mr. Jost’s time behind the Weekend Update desk hasn’t exactly rocked the boat in the manner of, say, his predecessor Norm Macdonald. But there’s one segment that tip-toes close to the line, and that’s the biannual Weekend Update joke swap between himself and co-host Michael Che. During the holiday episode and season finale every year, the pair write each other provocative jokes that they read for the first time on air.

On an episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, Clarkson played for Johansson one of the latest Che-penned wisecracks that her husband read on air: “ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in Her. Which I’ve never bothered to watch, because without that body, what’s the point of listening?”

Johansson warned the squeaky-clean daytime audience that this jokingly misogynistic jab is “like a tame version” of the joke swap. “We need to go into, like, witness protection after that night. I am absolutely terrified we’re gonna be, like, targeted. It’s so bad. I black out for that period of the night. I actually don’t remember it.” Just seeing the picture come up on the screen makes her scream. “It is brutal. I feel like every year it gets worse, it’s just terrible. … It’s painful. I mean I really do—I actually don’t remember that segment. I fully blacked out.” Well, that’s what you get for marrying one of comedy’s most notorious bad boys!