Mikey Day caught Colin Jost off guard this weekend when he tore open his shirt during a cut-for-time Weekend Update sketch on Saturday Night Live to reveal a large tattoo of Scarlett Johansson on his chest, prompting Jost to collapse into laughter at the desk.
The bit paired Day with Chloe Fineman, who was playing “A Guy and His Girlfriend Who’s Always Cold,” as they joined Jost and Michael Che to discuss dating app fatigue. Fineman’s character spent the exchange shivering uncontrollably, sending Day into a frantic effort to warm her up by shedding layer after layer—first a jacket, then a hoodie, and finally his shirt. When he ripped it open, Johansson’s face was emblazoned across his chest. “Well, this is awkward,” Day deadpanned, turning to Jost.
Jost’s stunned reaction — a heavy-handed laugh and a lean toward the desk — was part of the joke’s payoff. Day tried to smooth things over by insisting he’d gotten the tattoo “before you were married,” adding, “I didn’t know I’d be taking my shirt off, baby!” He pleaded that he’d “never do better than her,” then, in comic exasperation at his perpetually freezing partner, declared they had to break up before ultimately surrendering his pants to keep her warm. After the hosts signed off, Jost could be seen laughing and asking Day about the tattoo as the cast applauded the surprise gag.
The sketch’s premise — a lover driven to extremes by an eternally cold partner — was the setup for the ScarJo reveal, but the payoff leaned into SNL’s long-running inclination to tease Jost about his marriage to Johansson. Michael Che, Jost’s Update co-anchor, has repeatedly made the couple a target of his jokes, once quipping during a segment about the U.K.’s Wife Carrying Race that the winner of the husband-carrying contest was “Scarlett Johansson.” A few weeks earlier, Update ran a gag in which a graphic appeared to lower Johansson’s lifetime box-office total after Jost offhandedly suggested including “the box office from Scarlett’s husband’s movies,” prompting incredulous laughter from Jost when the number dropped.
The new cut-for-time sketch reinforces that SNL continues to mine the real-life relationship for recurring comedic beats, often pushing the line between affectionate ribbing and pointed mockery. Johansson herself has previously appeared visibly uncomfortable with some of the raunchier Update traditions, but the show keeps returning to the joke — most recently with Day’s unexpected chest tattoo reveal that left the desk in stitches.