{"id":799351,"date":"2026-10-11T17:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799351\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T17:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:44:16","slug":"saturday-night-live-skewers-pete-hegseth-in-colin-josts-cold-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799351\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Night Live skewers Pete Hegseth in Colin Jost\u2019s cold open"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Saturday Night Live is taking aim at Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with the sketch show\u2019s latest cold open.<\/p>\n

Wearing a belt stocked with mini bottles of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey, Colin Jost reprised his role as the secretary of war <\/a>at the start of Saturday\u2019s new episode to spoof the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln\u2019s recent return home.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re back home safe in sunny San Diego, which the president just asked Iran to blow up,\u201d Jost\u2019s Hegseth said. He then went on to catch the sailors up to speed on what they missed while they were away, \u201cin case you immediately want to head back to sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn December, as we get into the Christmas spirit, we’re going to execute a guy in a wheelchair on live TV,\u201d he said, referring to the U.S. military\u2019s scheduled execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s right, public executions are back, kind of like Scrubs,\u201d he deadpanned, adding that if a prisoner survives an execution, he will fight boxer Jake Paul.<\/p>\n

\"ColinColin Jost plays Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on ‘Saturday Night Live’ (SNL)\"DefenseDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been criticized over his decision to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Next, Hegseth revealed the Department of War\u2019s new emblem, which has drawn comparisons to Nazi imagery, and admitted it has a \u201cNazi vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then brought out Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., played by James Austin Johnson<\/a>, introducing him as \u201cthe only guy who snorts more rhino horn than me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to report that America is healthier than ever,\u201d Johnson\u2019s Kennedy started in his signature strained voice. \u201cThat\u2019s why I would officially like to rename cold and flu season to cold and flu and listeria and measles and trench brain season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert F. Kennedy Jr. is the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (AFP\/Getty)\"JamesJames Austin Johnson played Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during the cold open (SNL)<\/p>\n

He addressed recent food recalls <\/a>by telling sailors that meats like catfish, pony and cricket were tested on them, declaring: \u201cThe research you provided on Operation Hell Cruise will be vital for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth then returned and closed out his speech to the sailors by quoting Linkin Park\u2019s song \u201cIn the End.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn\u2019t even matter,\u201d he sang. He then thanked the crew for their willingness to go down with the ship, which goes against his \u201cpersonal rule of never going down on anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018Weekend Update\u2019 co-host \u2014 who has appeared as a rowdy caricature of Hegseth <\/a>on the sketch series for nearly a year \u2014 concluded the cold open by introducing the rest of the show, which featured comedian Shane Gillis and musical guest Rosal\u00eda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-799351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}