In 2022, Colin Jost and Pete Davidson made one of the weirdest purchases of all time: a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry for $280,000. Now, Jost has revealed how his wife, Scarlett Johansson, reacted to the news.
Jost shared on the “Smartless” podcast that he first texted his dad, a Staten Island teacher. “He literally was like, ‘Did you do your homework?’ Which is such a teacher thing to say,” he said. “I was like, ‘Dad, I’m just sort of texting you as a formality. I already bought the boat.'”
Then, he texted someone arguably more important: his wife. “‘Guess what? We own a ferry now,'” he recalled of his text. “And she was like, ‘We?'”
Jost and Davidson previously joked that they were losing money on the purchase, with the “Big Time Adolescence” star stopping by Weekend Update on “SNL” to say, “In case you’re wondering why I had to do a show in Saudi Arabia, we’re losing millions on this ferry.”
However, now, Jost refutes the claims that the ferry is a “money pit.” “We’ve done some events on it where we really have already made back the money we’ve invested and the money we’ve spent on stuff to dock it and all that,” Jost told the podcast hosts. “A home run for me is, it’s a thing that could be used for an event space but also has an everyday purpose,” Jost said of his vision. “Two versions of it to me are, it could be an operating entertainment club, a place where you can go and have parties or there’s regular parties on it. And then… I could imagine creating a place like a [swim club] that’s not like a weird, fancy member’s club, but is actually more middle-class, Manhattan swim club.”
As for Johansson’s feelings on the matter? “She now obviously sees the value in it, but also I think she’s like, ‘It’s now become something that is a defining thing for you guys and an interesting thing for you guys. So you should take it seriously and figure out the best version of it, because for better or worse, it’s going to reflect on you,'” Jost explained. “We don’t care because we’re comedians.”
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