"Saturday Night Live" star Colin Jost recently shared his wife Scarlett Johansson's reaction to his impulsive purchase of a decommissioned Staten Island ferry in 2022. During an interview on the "SmartLess" podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, Jost recounted the story.
The Impulse Buy
Jost explained that he couldn't stop thinking about the ferry when he realized it was the same vessel he used to ride from his childhood home to his private high school in Manhattan. Learning that the 60-year-old ferry would be scrapped if not sold at auction, he contacted his former "SNL" colleague Pete Davidson, another Staten Island native.
Jost admitted that Davidson was probably the "wrong person to text" for such an idea, but Davidson responded enthusiastically with "Fuck yeah." Despite the ferry lacking working engines, it attracted competition. Jost, Davidson, and investment partner Ron Castellano won the auction with a last-minute bid of $280,100, beating an anonymous rival.
Family Reactions
Jost first told his father, a retired high school teacher, who responded with a classic teacher question: "Did you do your homework?" Jost replied, "Dad, I'm just sort of texting you as a formality. I already bought the boat." Next, he informed his wife, actress Scarlett Johansson, via text: "Guess what? We own a ferry now." Her one-word response was "We?"
Jost later joked that the ferry was the "dumbest and least thought-through purchase" he ever made, but he viewed it as a real estate investment. "If you put it somewhere, it's 70,000 square feet. So I was like, 'If you put that on a dock in Manhattan, you've suddenly got basically a building on the waterfront,'" he said.
Future Plans
Nearly four years later, Jost and his partners are still working to convert the ferry into a floating event space. The process involves obtaining permits, securing parking, and meeting environmental regulations, which Jost described as a "long process." Despite the challenges, he remains optimistic, assuring the hosts that everything will "be fine," though he admitted uncertainty about the financial wisdom of the venture.
