Scarlett Johansson reveals she 'blacked out' during Colin Jost's SNL joke swap with Michael Che

Colin Jost isn’t the only one feeling the heat during his annual Saturday Night Live joke swap with Michael Che. 

Scarlett Johansson, who has been married to Jost since 2020, also finds the recurring sketch to be quite a challenge. 

During her appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Thursday, the Fly Me to the Moon actress revealed she “blacked out” during the latest segment.

"We need to go into like, witness protection after that night,” Johansson joked. 

“Like, I am absolutely terrified we’re gonna be like, targeted. It’s so bad. I black out for that period of the night. I don’t — I actually don’t remember it.”

The nerve-wracking Weekend Update segment is straightforward: Che and Jost take turns reading jokes written by the other, which they have not seen in advance. 

This tradition often results in Che tricking Jost into reading hilariously offensive jokes, some involving his famous wife.

Recently, Che made Jost quip about OpenAI’s voice assistant feature stealing Johansson’s voice.

"ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson's AI character in Her," Jost began uneasily in the May episode. 

"Which I've never bothered to watch, because without that body, what's the point of listening?"

After host Kelly Clarkson played the clip for Johansson, the Black Widow star remarked that Jost usually faces much worse. 

“That’s like a tame version,” she 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.” 

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

Despite the dread Jost shows whenever the Weekend Update segment returns, he spoke fondly of the tradition during an April episode of Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, calling his time in the hot seat “both terrifying and exhilarating.”

"It's kind of crazy. There's just not a lot of live television in the world anymore,” he said. 

“So the idea that you're on live television and you have to say something and you don't know what it is, that's pretty crazy — and it's not usually gentle. I'm someone who can also be really in my head a lot of times, and it definitely gets you out of your head. I really like that.”

If nothing else, he added, “it’s definitely a reminder to not be afraid of trying things.”