Bill Murray showed up to the Weekend Update segment on Saturday Night Live where he joked that his brother was “sleeping every kind of way” with Scarlett Johansson.
On Sunday, former Weekend Update anchors Bill Murray and Seth Meyers returned to the desk for SNL’s 50th anniversary special, and joined current hosts Michael Che and Johansson’s husband Colin Jost.
Murray chose to use his time to rate all the Weekend Anchors, past and present. He started off with a dig at the number of Black anchors the segment has had by rating the only one.
“Let's just jump right in. In honour of Black History Month, I want to start by ranking the African American Weekend Update anchors,” Murray said, holding a board with a single name on it. “We'll start with number one, and this is by default, Michael Che.”
“Now we’ll move on to the regular Weekend Update anchors,” Murray joked, with Che responding: “What the hell do you mean ‘regular?’”
He then began to rate other anchors and co-anchor duos, disqualifying himself since he “was on performance-enhancing drugs. It’s what we call an 88-shaker. Quaaludes. Cocaine. And nighttime theraflu”.
Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jimmy Fallon, the original anchor Chevy Chase, the late Norm Macdonald, Jane Curtin, and Danny Aykroyd all made appearances on the board, until the top slot was left – with no mention of Colin Jost.
“That brings us to number one. I’ve got a good feeling about this,” Murray said. “Okay, number one is funny, got a great smile. He's currently sleeping every kind of way with the lovely actress, Scarlett Johansson…”
“Of course, I'm talking about my brother Brian Doye-Murray,” he revealed.
Bill Murray ranks Weekend Update anchors#SNL50 pic.twitter.com/2dBVmF3XIT
— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) February 17, 2025
“I'm told he's a very considerate lover,” he added, as Jost continued to laugh.
Jost and Che have been co-hosts on Weekend Update for over 10 years now, with a holiday and season finale tradition where they each write often-inappropriate jokes for the other to deliver without seeing them beforehand.
The segment has become a fan favourite, and Che has written jokes featuring Johansson for Jost on multiple occasions before.
For the show’s 49th season finale, Che tricked Jost into saying: “ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in Her. Which I’ve never bothered to watch, because without that body what’s the point of listening?”
At the show’s 2024 Christmas special, cameras captured Johansson’s stunned live reaction as she listened to Jost reading out a joke about their sex life while waiting backstage.
“Costco has removed their roast beef sandwich from its menu, but I ain’t tripping. I be eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid,” Jost said.
During an appearance on Tonight with Jimmy Fallon later, the host asked Jost if the gag landed him “in trouble” with his wife.
“I’m in trouble I think with a lot of people,” he said. “Scarlett was genuinely so shocked.”
Jost revealed that although Johansson was “obviously surprised”, the show’s team had attempted to soften the landing by giving her a heads up.
“They were like, ‘Hey, would you be okay if Michael made a little, like, kind of vagina joke at some point?’”Jost said.
“She was like, ‘Sure, you know, whatever, I’m open to it,’” Jost said.
Saturday Night Live kicked off its 50th anniversary special with a packed lineup of past performers and hosts, celebrity cameos and musical guests from the storied stage in Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
