Colin Jost, Scarlett Johansson, and the Art of the Self‑Own on ‘SNL’

Scarlett Johansson has officially been dethroned as the highest-grossing Hollywood star, and Saturday Night Live wasted no time turning the news into a Weekend Update punchline—with Colin Jost reacting on-air to a joke about his own wife’s box office “downfall.” The moment wasn’t just a quick viral gag; it captured how modern celebrity couples, late-night comedy, and the changing box office landscape all intersect in 2020s pop culture.

Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost together at a red carpet event
Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, whose real-life marriage is now canon SNL joke material. (Image: Entertainment Weekly promo photography)

As Johansson gears up for her upcoming role in Jurassic World: Rebirth, her brief box office “drop” became comedy fuel—highlighting how fragile these records are and how quickly late-night TV turns industry stats into relationship roasts.


From Box Office Queen to Setup Line: How Scarlett Lost the Crown

For years, Scarlett Johansson has been a fixture at the top of Hollywood’s box office rankings, largely thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Between The Avengers films, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Black Widow, she racked up billions in ticket sales, often cited by outlets like Box Office Mojo and IMDb as one of the all-time top-grossing stars.

But box office leaderboards are living, breathing things. When a new franchise installment or surprise hit lands, the rankings quietly reshuffle. Johansson’s recent slip from the No. 1 slot opened a small window—just wide enough for SNL to climb through with a joke.

The added twist: Johansson isn’t just another A‑lister to SNL. She’s both a beloved five‑time host and married to one of its longest-serving writers and anchors—Colin Jost—making her box office stats fair game in Studio 8H.


The Weekend Update Joke: Turning Marriage into Material

During the latest Saturday Night Live episode, Weekend Update leaned directly into the headlines about Johansson’s box office reign ending. Rather than go after Johansson herself, the segment cleverly targeted Jost as the proxy.

The structure of the joke was classic Update: state the news, then pivot into a character jab. The punchline essentially framed Johansson’s lost title as a crisis for Jost—implying that he’d somehow “married down” now that she’s no longer atop the box office mountain.

“Scarlett Johansson is no longer the highest-grossing movie star of all time… which is tough news for her husband, Colin Jost, who just found out he married the second‑place finisher.”

Jost’s reaction—half fake‑wounded, half amused—was the key. He’s spent years turning himself into the butt of Update’s jokes, from his Harvard‑guy persona to his Brooklyn stroller‑dad energy. This was just the most high‑profile version: the show weaponizing his own celebrity marriage against him.

Television studio with cameras and lighting set up for a live comedy show
The Weekend Update desk has evolved into a place where anchors like Jost are just as much punchlines as the politicians they cover.

Colin Jost’s On‑Air Reaction: Self‑Deprecation as a Superpower

What made the moment work wasn’t the actual joke—it was the reaction. Jost leaned into the bit with the weary smile of someone who knows he wrote at least three earlier drafts of that same punchline.

Entertainment outlets like Entertainment Weekly quickly circulated the clip, framing it as Jost “reacting” to the line, but part of the humor is that this isn’t a surprise ambush. SNL is deeply collaborative; the Update anchors are often in the room crafting the very jokes that roast them.

In interviews, Jost has often said that making himself the target is “the fairest way” to joke about fame—if he’s going to dish it out to politicians and celebrities, he has to be willing to take it too.

The bit also functions as a low‑stakes flex: the subtext is that Jost’s wife was once the highest‑grossing movie star in history, which is as humble‑braggy as self‑deprecating jokes get.


Scarlett Johansson’s Long Relationship with ‘SNL’

Johansson isn’t just a name being tossed around in the monologue; she’s practically part of the extended SNL family. She’s hosted the show multiple times, becoming a reliable presence whenever the series wants a movie star who can handle sketch comedy beats.

Live comedy audience facing a brightly lit stage
Johansson is one of the few A‑list film stars who reliably feels at home in the strange rhythms of live sketch comedy.

Over the years, she’s played everything from heightened versions of herself to oddballs and parodies, proving she’s game for the same kind of ribbing Jost gets. That makes a box office joke feel less like a cheap shot and more like an in‑joke within a troupe she already belongs to.


Why Box Office “Titles” Don’t Mean What They Used To

Underneath the joke is a real shift in how we understand stardom. Being the “highest‑grossing actor” in a world of franchise filmmaking is less about individual draw and more about being attached to the right cinematic universe at the right time.

  • Franchise inflation: One Avengers-sized ensemble can add a billion dollars to multiple actors’ totals overnight.
  • Streaming distortion: Hits that debut on platforms don’t always factor neatly into traditional box office rankings.
  • Shorter windows: Theatrical runs are tighter, which can compress or redistribute what used to be long tail earnings.

In that sense, Johansson’s brief fall from the top doesn’t say much about her cultural stature. If anything, it shows how arbitrary the metrics are—convenient enough to fuel fan debates and comedy bits, but flimsy as actual measures of artistic or star power.

Movie theater audience watching a film with the screen glowing in the dark
Box office leaderboards now say as much about franchise ecosystems as they do about any single performer.

Enter Jurassic World: Rebirth: The Next Box Office Wave

The irony is that while SNL is joking about Johansson’s slipping numbers, she’s lining up another potential box office monster: Jurassic World: Rebirth. Universal’s dinosaur franchise has been a reliable global earner, and casting Johansson signals a bet that she still anchors four‑quadrant blockbusters.

If Rebirth hits expectations, the same outlets that reported her loss of the top spot could end up charting her return to the summit. It’s a reminder of how cyclical these narratives are—particularly for women in Hollywood, whose careers the industry is historically quicker to label “over” long before the numbers back that up.

Cinema hallway with movie posters and neon lights hinting at blockbuster releases
With Jurassic World: Rebirth, Johansson moves from superheroes to dinosaurs—another cornerstone franchise in modern Hollywood.

Celebrity Couples as Late‑Night Canon

The Jost–Johansson moment also fits into a broader trend: late‑night and sketch shows increasingly treat celebrity couples as recurring characters in their own ongoing meta‑sitcoms.

  • Built‑in narrative: Audiences already know the relationship, so writers can skip setup and go straight to the joke.
  • Authenticity vibes: When stars seem game to poke fun at themselves, it humanizes them in a way that plays well online.
  • Shareability: Clips framed as “X reacts to joke about partner Y” tend to travel quickly across TikTok and Instagram.

For SNL, Jost and Johansson are a gift: a real-life, high-profile couple seamlessly connected to the show’s ecosystem. The Weekend Update desk becomes not just a faux news outlet, but a running commentary on its own cast’s entanglement with Hollywood.

Television control room with multiple monitors during a live broadcast
Modern late‑night thrives on blurring the line between performers’ on‑screen personas and their off‑screen relationships.

Strengths, Weaknesses, and the Risk of Over‑Personalizing the Joke

As a piece of comedy, the bit mostly works—tight, topical, and rooted in a genuine relationship dynamic the audience recognizes. It’s an easy entry point for casual viewers who might not care about the finer points of box office math.

The minor drawback is that Hollywood career discourse for women often gets filtered through their relationships—who they’re married to, who they’re dating, how their success impacts a partner’s ego. Framing Johansson’s record through Jost’s insecurity (even jokingly) plays near that territory, though the self‑aware tone and her own deep ties to SNL help soften the edge.

The joke lands because everyone involved—Johansson, Jost, and the show itself—has enough cultural capital to treat a shifting box office stat as exactly what it is: trivial, funny, and fleeting.

Watch the Moment & Where to Stream It

For anyone who wants to see the delivery—and Jost’s face do half the work—the clip is best experienced in motion. NBC and SNL routinely upload Weekend Update highlights shortly after broadcast.

You can typically find the segment on:

Once Jurassic World: Rebirth ramps up its campaign, expect the conversation to resurface when new trailers and box office projections drop—likely fueling a fresh round of jokes about who’s really the blockbuster heavyweight in that marriage.


Conclusion: A Box Office Joke in a Streaming‑Era World

Colin Jost’s on‑air reaction to a joke about Scarlett Johansson losing her “highest‑grossing star” title is a neat snapshot of where entertainment culture is right now: box office numbers as meme material, power couples as serialized characters, and long‑running institutions like SNL still sharp enough to turn a trade‑press footnote into a genuinely funny moment.

Whether or not Johansson reclaims the top spot, the bit underscores how little those rankings matter compared to something more durable: audience affection, a trusted comedy stage, and a celebrity pair willing to be in on the joke. In a few years, the leaderboard will have changed again—but the clip of Jost getting roasted for “marrying second place” will still be circulating.


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