The stunned look on Scarlett Johansson’s face during a “vulgar” joke swap segment on “Saturday Night Live” in December was no act.
The “Black Widow” star had the deer-in-the-headlights look in the Dec. 21 episode as she was filmed reacting to her husband, “SNL” star Colin Jost, reading filthy jokes about her. The lines were written by Jost’s “Weekend Update” co-anchor Michael Che.
In keeping with tradition, each host had no idea what jokes the other had written for them until they had to read them live on air. This time, though, Johansson was watching live backstage at Studio 8H.
“Oh gosh, are we reliving the joke swap?” Johansson told Jenna Bush Hager on TODAY on Jan. 24 while serving as guest co-host of Jenna & Friends. “It’s wrong. It’s just wrong, you guys. It got so vulgar.”
During the segment, Jost could barely contain his laughter as he read the start of Che’s lines.
“My boo, Scarlett Johansson, is so genuinely worried. Hey boo, y’all know Scarlett just celebrated her 40th birthday, which means I’m about to get up out of there!” Jost read on “SNL” before cracking up.
Johansson was asked by “SNL” in advance if she wanted to be a part of the bit, and she said she agreed under certain terms.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to get canceled or divorced,'” Johansson said on TODAY. “Those are my boundaries. And they said, ‘OK fine, what if we just tape you listening to the jokes?’ I said, ‘OK, that seems fine, tame-ish.'”
It turned out not to be so tame-ish, as one joke involved Johansson’s genitalia.
“Honestly Jenna, I felt like it was ‘To Catch a Predator’ when the lights kind of came on me and suddenly there was a whole audience, and I was there with, thankfully, a very stiff cocktail,” Johansson said of her reaction.
“The jokes got — they were so vulgar,” she said. “That’s genuine shock.”
Jost also affirmed earlier this week that his wife was not acting when she gave that reaction.
“Scarlett was genuinely so shocked,” Jost told Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” Jan. 20. “I was obviously surprised by everything, but they gave her a heads-up.”
Even for an “SNL” regular like Johansson, who has hosted the show six times and made multiple other appearances, Che’s lines, as read by Jost, were an eye opener.
“Emma Stone, who was also there because we were doing a five-timers thing for Martin Short, turned to me and she went, ‘That was not OK. That was not OK,'” Johansson said. “My heart was racing. My eyes were watering. My hands were like this (shaking). It was surreal.”
During the “SNL” segment, Che also had to read jokes written by Jost.
“(Jost) writes also for Michael Che, but I honestly feel like Michael is trying to get us permanently removed, I don’t know,” Johansson joked. “He has a vendetta against us. Michael, why?! What’d I do to you, Michael?”
Jenna suggested a way that Johansson can get her revenge. She invited Johansson to return on Jenna & Friends with Che as a guest, and they can do a teleprompter swap.