Scarlett Johansson made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live to poke fun at The White Lotus.
Aged 40, Johansson was one of the many guest stars featured in a parody of the Emmy-winning HBO series, where she played the role of Ivanka Trump, the First Daughter, in a pre-recorded sketch on SNL.
In this skit, the comedic portrayal of Donald Trump was revamped with James Austin Johnson embodying the character as the distressed family head, taking the place of Jason Isaacs’ Timothy Ratliff, a financially struggling businessman. The narrative shifted the cause of the wealthy family’s dilemma from financial misconduct to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
SNL further satirized The White Lotus by incorporating a storyline centered on sibling incest. In this parody, Donald Trump Jr., portrayed by Mikey Day, has a surreal dream about Tiger Woods, played by Kenan Thompson. Interestingly, recent reports have surfaced indicating that Vanessa Trump, Donald Jr.’s former spouse, is currently romantically involved with Woods.
The White POTUS fit in several other memorable cameos too, including former SNL cast members Alex Moffatt playing Eric Trump and Beck Bennett reprising his impersonation of Russian president Vladimir Putin, respectively.
Johansson has made numerous appearances during Saturday Night Live’s landmark 50th season, likely due in part to her husband, Colin Jost, serving as “Weekend Update” coanchor alongside Michael Che.
The Black Widow star was the butt of Che and Jost’s most severe “Joke Swap” in December 2024 when her husband was forced to ruthlessly mock her on air with a Che-penned one-liner.
“Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu. I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid,” Jost said through gritted teeth and a few chuckles.
SNL viewers saw Johansson’s stunned reaction to the crude joke because she was being filmed live backstage during the segment. Johansson later admitted to In Style that she was caught off guard by the “vulgar” nature of Che’s “Joke Swap” punchline.
“It was so vulgar. I just can’t believe that they went there,” she quipped. “I was like — it was so gross. It was really gross. And, like, old-school gross.”
The Marvel star confirmed she was given a heads up that Che had written a “vagina joke” about her but had no other clues beforehand about the content of the line.
“I was like, I mean, it’s a vagina joke, how bad could it be? And then as soon as the Costco photo came up, I was like, ‘No! No, Michael,’” she recalled. “The fact that it took on a full To Catch a Predator-style reveal or whatever … They were waiting for me to react. I felt insane.”
Johansson is certainly no stranger to appearing on Saturday Night Live, as she has previously hosted the show on six occasions. Viewers have more recently seen her make guest appearances throughout the show’s 50th season.
She walked the red carpet arm-in-arm at Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special in February and later appeared in a sendup of The Lawrence Welk Show with Kim Kardashian, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig.
Saturday Night Live’s next new episode airs Saturday, May 3 on NBC at 11:30p.m. ET with guest host Quinta Brunson and musical guest Benson Boone.
