I miss the days when Pete Davidson would pop up on “Weekend Update” opposite Colin Jost, but I guess the next best thing is reporting on the SNL stars co-owning and refurbishing a ferry boat. The transportation vessel has been an object of fascination since the two men reportedly shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep it from a watery grave.
We don’t know what spurred Jost to make the $280,000 purchase with Pete Davidson. However, he does have a sweet connection to the Staten Island ferry system. Jost grew up on there, and when he married Scarlett Johansson, a charity they work with, Meals on Wheels, commissioned a Staten Island Ferry to float around with a “Jost Married” banner attached to it. (Davidson is also from Staten Island and has a long history with the ferry.)
You know what’s not sweet though? The hit Jost has taken on his wallet, something he’s joked about prior to the 60+ year old ferry holding its first event. It was when the two turned their ferry into a floating Snapple-themed comedy event this fall that Jost made a truly off color joke about what it has meant to own his ferry. I didn’t see it coming, but now I can’t stop thinking about it. While thanking Snapple for sponsoring, Jost joked:
I feel like we should acknowledge our former sponsor, too — my accountant’s suicide note.
That joke is so brutal it makes me feel like Jost is really holding back when he and Che get into their yearly joke swaps. The two have been doing the “Weekend Update” segment since 2018, and I kind of feel like Che usually has the upper hand, with Jost admitting the only time he one-upped him was with a Kendrick Lamar joke. But I’d say the above Snapple event comment proves he has the chops to go a little harder in the paint in the same way Che has proven he’s game for.
Meanwhile, he's wife's out here just minding her own business and doing press for her new movie and she's getting all the questions about her husband's ferry boat. On Today this week, Scarlett Johansson had a much tamer joke about the boat -- named Titanic 2, you can't make this up -- and its finances. She honestly seems flabbergasted about the whole thing, joking "it needs dollars, the docking fees are steep."
The two men are allegedly looking to make the ferry boat into a full-fledged entertainment venure, but for now, it's still taking flak. I don't know all the jabs that were made during this Snapple event, but the New York Times confirmed many of them were too over-the-top to even print, and if Jost’s “suicide note” comment is an example of one that was, I honestly believe it. It makes me wonder what over-the-line jokes have ended up on the SNL cutting room floor.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the ferry boat, it’s been cool to start to see some forward momentum, and we’ll Snapple right to it and report the next time the boat lands a gig.
