Michael Che can rest easy. Scarlett Johansson isn’t holding a grudge against him for the infamous “vagina joke” written by her husband, Colin Jost, and delivered on Saturday Night Live.
In a recent interview with InStyle, Johansson, 40, discussed the joke that became the talk of the town. The moment occurred during the “Weekend Update” segment of SNL’s Christmas episode. Every year, Che and Jost swap jokes, keeping each other in the dark until the jokes are read live. Jost had an inkling something provocative was coming when a roast beef sandwich appeared on the screen toward the end of the segment.
Jost began the joke, struggling to hold back his laughter: “Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu… But I ain’t trippin’. I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.”
Johansson, who recently gave birth to her second child, shared her reaction with InStyle, calling the joke “so vulgar.” “I just can’t believe they went there,” she said. “It was so gross. Really gross. And old-school gross.”
Despite the nature of the joke, Johansson appeared to take it in stride during the interview, laughing it off. She revealed that producers had warned her about the “vagina joke” written by Che but didn’t reveal it would involve her directly. “I thought, ‘I mean, it’s a vagina joke, how bad could it be?'” she said. “Then, when the Costco image appeared, I was like, ‘No! No, Michael!'”
The joke drew an audible gasp from the audience, and things escalated when the camera cut to Johansson’s live reaction backstage. “The whole thing felt like a To Catch a Predator-style reveal,” she joked. “It was so intense, with all these people holding up lights and a guy with a video camera. They were waiting for me to react. I felt insane… like I was about to faint.”
