Colin Jost says he plans to stick around SNL, calls Donald Trump hosting in 2015 "a wake-up call for our show"

The New York Times

The 38-year-old "Weekend Update" co-anchor is releasing his memoir titled A Very Punchable Face next week. Near the end of the book, Jost writes that he is “preparing mentally to leave SNL in the future” and getting ready “to sleep semiregular hours and write without the constant swirling pressure of a live show every Saturday night.” But in promoting the book, Jost tells The New York Times he's had a newfound appreciation for Saturday Night Live after filming the pandemic SNL at Home episodes. “It made me even more appreciative of my job and my friends at work, the energy and the joy of doing the show," he says. "That makes me want to stick around more.” Jost, who's been with SNL since leaving Harvard in 2005, writes in his book that Trump's much-derided 2015 appearance “was a wake-up call for our show. It became clear that he wasn’t like any other political guest. He was a uniquely divisive and dangerous candidate. And that episode of SNL has not aged well, politically or comedically.” Jost also writes that he realizes he's perceived as a "villain from an ’80s movie who tries to steal the hero’s girlfriend by challenging him to a ski race." In reality, Jost grew up unable to speak in full sentences until nearly age 4. He also struggled with his weight as an adolescent. "I guess if you look at Colin and you don’t know him, if someone told you that he was a racist, you’d be like, yeah, maybe,” says Michael Che, Jost's fellow "Weekend Update" co-anchor. “He couldn’t be further from it, which is why it’s so funny. I literally try to come up with the worst possible things for him to say, because there’s nothing really bad to say about him.” ALSO: Jost blames fiancé Scarlett Johansson for his SNL at Home guitar in the background.