{"id":511889,"date":"2026-03-08T22:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T22:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/511889\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T22:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T22:29:19","slug":"people-cant-get-over-the-saturday-night-live-cold-open-on-pete-hegseth-and-kristi-noem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/511889\/","title":{"rendered":"People Can’t Get Over The “Saturday Night Live” Cold Open On Pete Hegseth And Kristi Noem"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Saturday Night Live<\/a>‘s cold open dragged President Donald Trump’s Secretary of War Pete Hegseth<\/a> over the war in Iran and the news of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem<\/a>‘s firing.\"Three<\/p>\n

Bloomberg \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

On the March 7 episode hosted by Ryan Gosling<\/a>, Colin Jost<\/a> reprised his role as Hegseth, portraying him as an “unhinged fratboy.”\"Person<\/p>\n

NBC \/ Will Heath\/NBC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Related: Here Are 60 Disney Characters \u2014 You Better Remember At Least 55<\/a><\/p>\n

Jost’s Hegseth literally started with a keg stand, which really set the tone for the rest of the cold open, which was completely off the rails.\"A<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

SNL mocked the way the Department of War and the Trump administration have been addressing the Iran attacks on social media.\"A<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

And Jost’s version of Hegseth reeeeeaaaaally took it there.\"A<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

When a reporter referred to the attacks from the US and Israel on Iran as a war, he abruptly interrupted her.\"Comedian<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

Related: 14 Onscreen Scenes So Horrible, The Actors Who Filmed Them Are Still Having Nightmares To This Day<\/a><\/p>\n

Then, Hegseth introduced Noem to the reporters, apparently for the last time, given the recent announcement of her replacement. Trump announced<\/a> on Truth Social on March 5 that Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma will replace Noem on March 31.\"Person<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

Ashley Padilla reprised her role as Noem to clear up any confusion about her reassignment by President Trump.\"A<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

Related: If You Haven’t Seen 27\/50 Of These Classic TV Sitcoms, You’re Officially Uncultured<\/a><\/p>\n

Padilla’s Noem shared why she was proud of her accomplishments in her time at the Department of Homeland Security.\"A<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

And she explained that her departure might be “bittersweet,” but she’s excited for her new role as a special envoy of “The Shield of the Americas,” created by President Trump.\"Person<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

SNL’s cold open was brutal, to say the least, from start to finish.\"A<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

People can’t stop talking about Colin Jost’s “frat boy” portrayal of Pete Hegseth<\/a>.\"Person<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

“Even Hegseth would agree Colin captured his ‘warrior ethos’ perfectly,” one person wrote. Another said, “You had me at Hegstand.”<\/p>\n

“He’s soooo good as Hegseth it’s incredible,” someone else added. Another person said, “Jost as unhinged fratboy hegseth will never not be funny.”<\/p>\n

One person said, “Honestly, I can’t see Hegseth now without thinking of Colin,” and someone else added, “These Hegseth skits will go down in history as some of the best.”<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing better in these times to watch than Jost’s secretary of incompetence,” another user wrote. This person praised Noem’s portrayal, writing, “Alex Padilla got Noem’s voice perfectly.”<\/p>\n

Related: Less Than 7% Of People Can Score 11\/14 On This “Gilmore Girls” Character Quiz, So I’ll Be Amazed If You Can<\/a><\/p>\n

Others couldn’t get over how close SNL<\/a>‘s cold open feels to our disturbing “reality.”\"Two<\/p>\n

NBC<\/p>\n

“That moment when you realize SNL is no longer writing scripts, they’re just doing slightly dramatized reenactments of reality,” one person said. Someone else wrote, “SNL has now become America’s most credible news source.”<\/p>\n

Another added, “If it wasn’t for the SNL end card would we know it wasn’t the actual press conference?”<\/p>\n

Lastly, someone asked, “When did SNL turn into a documentary program?”<\/p>\n

You can watch the SNL cold open here<\/a>.What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n

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Read it on BuzzFeed.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, Saturday Night Live‘s cold open dragged President Donald Trump’s Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[140884,7904,4111,12,88,2934,4801,1254,1572,232154],"class_list":["post-511889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alex-padilla","tag-bloomberg","tag-colin-jost","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-getty-images","tag-kristi-noem","tag-nbc","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-snl-cold-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}