Scarlett Johansson is finally talking about that incredibly raunchy “Saturday Night Live” vagina joke that Michael Che forced her husband, Colin Jost, to read live on air as she watched backstage. The Oscar nominee told InStyle magazine that “it was so vulgar” and “I just can’t believe that they went there.” Jost previously said on “The Tonight Show” that Johansson “was genuinely so shocked” by the joke.
“I was like — it was so gross. It was really gross,” Johansson added with a laugh. “And, like, old-school gross.”
The punchline in question took place during Jost and Che’s annual joke swap during the “SNL” Christmas episode (which aired Dec. 21). The “Weekend Update” hosts write non-PC jokes for each other that neither have seen until reading them live on air. During the most recent joke swap, Che had Jost make a quip about Costco and Johansson’s vagina.
The joke as said by Jost goes as follows: “Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from their menu. But I ain’t tripping. I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.” The “SNL” audience reacted with gasps as the camera cut to Johansson jaw-dropped backstage.
“My experience of it was so funny,” Johansson said, confirming that producers had given her a heads up before the episode filmed that Che had written a “vagina joke.”
“I was like, ‘I mean, it’s a vagina joke, how bad could it be?’” Johansson said. “And then as soon as the Costco photo came up, I was like, ‘No! No, Michael!’”
She found the camera swarming her backstage to capture her reaction to the joke in real time to be “so intense,” adding, “All of a sudden, it was like a whole bunch of people holding up lights, and a guy with a video camera. They were waiting for me to react. I felt insane. I was like, ‘I think I’m going to faint.’”
Johansson was cool with being filmed backstage as “SNL” is an event, but she told InStyle that she has a strict policy in her personal life to never take photos with fans in public.
“It really offends a lot of people,” she said. “It doesn’t mean I’m not appreciative, of course, that people are fans, or happy to see me. But I always say to people, ‘I’m not working.’ [And that means] I don’t want to be identified as being in this time and place with you. I’m doing my own thing.”
“I like to be in my own thoughts that have nothing to do with what other people think of me,” Johansson added about keeping her public life devoid of fan photos. “I don’t like being self-conscious.”
Head over to InStyle’s website to read Johansson’s latest cover story in its entirety.
