Colin Jost and Pete Davidson’s 2022 purchase of a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry has long been the butt of jokes.
On Thursday, the ship took its maiden voyage, with a free, one-night-only floating comedy club. And Jost said his wife, Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson, is coming around to the idea.
“She’s very supportive from a distance,” Jost, 44, told PEOPLE. “I mean, I wouldn’t say she’s an active investor.”
“She would love to retire on this ferry, you know? If that’s what puts her over the edge, I’m hopeful,” he added, sarcastically.
Earlier this year, the “Weekend Update” anchor told the Smartless podcast about how he broke the news of the investment to Johansson over text: “Guess what? We own a ferry now.”
Jost said Johansson responded by saying, “We?”
The SNL comedians bought the ferry for $280,000, planning to transform it into a venue. For the past four and a half years, the boat has sat largely unused due to permitting delays.
“It is absolutely the dumbest and least thought-through purchase I’ve ever made in my life,” Jost told PEOPLE in 2024. “The way I justified it is for the amount of money we were putting into buying it, on just a basic square-footage level, is if you found the right place for it to be, you were essentially buying a building on its side that’s 65,000 square feet. So around New York, that is a very good price per square foot.”
Now, Davidson tells PEOPLE, “it’s been fun proving people wrong.”
“It will be on our joint gravestone that I think we’re committed to,” Jost added. “Like the people bullying me growing up, now I own the boat. Try pushing me into the bathroom here now!”
