Michael Che publicly apologized to Scarlett Johansson during the 50th season finale of Saturday Night Live on May 17.
Che and his Weekend Update co-anchor, Colin Jost, followed their tradition of swapping jokes, where each reads a joke written by the other. This gave Che an opportunity to address a controversial joke he made a few months earlier about Johansson, who was hosting the finale.
“Before I tell another joke, I want to apologize to someone I hurt. Scarlett, can you come out here?” Che said, inviting Johansson onto the Weekend Update set. She sat beside him as he continued.
“Last time we did joke swap, I made Colin tell some tasteless jokes,” Che said, referring to a December 2024 episode where he made a crude joke comparing Johansson’s body to a Costco roast beef sandwich.
Che explained his behavior was driven by jealousy. “I’ve never even seen a human vagina,” he said. “And I say human because I once spent a summer on a farm.” He motioned for a high-five, but Johansson declined.
“Maybe I’m embarrassed about my own body,” Che added. “I can’t even take my hoodie off during sex because I have more nipples than a pregnant dog.”
Johansson responded with a light joke, “Yes, I have heard that about you.”
Che also apologized to Colin Jost. “Colin, I’m sorry, too. I owe you everything. When Colin discovered me, I was selling crack outside the Bronx Zoo. Now look at me: selling crack outside the American Girl Doll store,” he said, making the audience laugh.
He added, “I’ve told thousands of jokes on Update and gotten many laughs, but I’ve never said the three most important words: I love you.”
The original joke Che made in December shocked the audience, viewers, and Johansson herself.
“It was wrong. Just wrong. It got so vulgar,” Johansson said in a January interview while guest hosting TODAY with Jenna & Friends.
She revealed she was asked beforehand if she was comfortable being part of the joke swap. “I said, ‘I don’t want to get canceled or divorced.’ They said, ‘OK, what if we just tape you listening to the jokes?’ I said, ‘OK, that seems fine, tame-ish.’”
However, the joke turned out to be much more explicit than she expected. “Honestly, it felt like ‘To Catch a Predator’ when the lights came on me, and suddenly there was a whole audience,” she said. “Thankfully, I had a very stiff cocktail. The jokes were so vulgar. It was genuine shock.”
Colin Jost also confirmed Johansson was taken by surprise. “Scarlett was genuinely shocked,” he said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January. “I was surprised too, but they gave her a heads-up.”
