{"id":620518,"date":"2026-05-03T05:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T05:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/620518\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T05:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T05:23:08","slug":"snl-cold-open-unveils-aziz-ansari-as-kash-patel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/620518\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;SNL&#8217; Cold Open Unveils Aziz Ansari As Kash Patel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cIn summary, war is awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tA week afte<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/04\/snl-ashley-padilla-marcello-hernandez-season-51-interview-1236871703\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">r taking the stage <\/a>as a part of Deadline\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/contenders-tv\/\" id=\"auto-tag_contenders-tv\" data-tag=\"contenders-tv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Contenders TV<\/a> shindig in L.A., <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/ashley-padilla\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ashley-padilla\" data-tag=\"ashley-padilla\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ashley Padilla<\/a> took center stage in <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/snl\/\" id=\"auto-tag_snl\" data-tag=\"snl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SNL<\/a>\u2019s cold open tonight in NYC as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Then, in what may would assume was the comedy twist she quickly handed things over to <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/colin-jost\/\" id=\"auto-tag_colin-jost\" data-tag=\"colin-jost\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colin Jost<\/a> for another pitch perfect parody stint of Defense Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/pete-hegseth\/\" id=\"auto-tag_pete-hegseth\" data-tag=\"pete-hegseth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pete Hegseth<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cOkay, everyone\u2019s always asking me, when is this war gonna be over?\u201d the Weekend Update co-host as the ex-Fox News host exclaimed. \u201cThat\u2019s like asking, when is sex gonna be over? Answer, when the man is done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIf that double star turn from Padilla and Jost wasn\u2019t enough, a perfectly cast <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/aziz-ansari\/\" id=\"auto-tag_aziz-ansari\" data-tag=\"aziz-ansari\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aziz Ansari<\/a> hit the podium with a chest pump as FBI Director <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/kash-patel\/\" id=\"auto-tag_kash-patel\" data-tag=\"kash-patel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kash Patel<\/a>. As Ansari satirically self-declared: \u201cthe first Indian person to suck at his job!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cEveryone says Indian people are smart, hard working, incredibly intelligent,\u201d The Master of None star\u2019s bug-eyed Patel proclaimed. \u201cI prove without a shadow of a doubt that we can be just as incapable and incompetent as the whites.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAsked by an assembly of SNL cast members posing as journalists if he was on the way out, the controversial and rumored soon-to-be-really-fired Patel replied: \u201cHell, no! President Trump loves me. Everybody loves me, even the Correspondents Dinner shooter said, \u2018Kill everyone, but Mr. Patel.\u2019 You get a shout-out like that in a psycho\u2019s manifesto, you must be doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIndeed, that was the case on <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/saturday-night-live\/\" id=\"auto-tag_saturday-night-live\" data-tag=\"saturday-night-live\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saturday Night Live<\/a>\u2019s cold open tonight \u2013 as you can see here: <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tComing off a week that saw shots fired at the now shuttered 2026 White House Correspondents Dinner, more attacks by the Trumps on Jimmy Kimmel and ABC\u2019s licenses now up for early renewal, and the debut of The <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/devil-wears-prada-2\/\" id=\"auto-tag_devil-wears-prada-2\" data-tag=\"devil-wears-prada-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Devil Wears Prada 2<\/a>, Saturday Night Live had a lot to draw on tonight for its first cold open since April 11. There was also a USA 250 visit by a certain British King to a nation where some are starting to wonder if 1776 should have gone another way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tInstead they nailed it with the triple threat of Padilla, Jost and (please come back soon) guest Ansari. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIn the second to last show of its 51st season, the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/nbc\/\" id=\"auto-tag_nbc\" data-tag=\"nbc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBC<\/a> later-nighter has <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/olivia-rodrigo\/\" id=\"auto-tag_olivia-rodrigo\" data-tag=\"olivia-rodrigo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Olivia Rodrigo<\/a> hosting and performing as the musical guest before the live crowd in 30 Rock\u2019s Studio 8H tonight. While the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series\u00a0alum has appeared as the musical guest twice before, this is Rodrigo\u2019s first time hosting SNL, and of course, doing double duty. Hot off her number #1 \u201cDrop Dead\u201d \u201csingle, Rodrigo has a new You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love\u00a0album set to drop next month and a world tour to follow later in the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tMatt Damon and Noah Kahan will front and sing out the penultimate show of Season 51 next week. On May 16, SNL legend Will Ferrell and that up-and-comer Paul McCartney bring the latest run of the Lorne Michaels-created show to an end for one more year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn summary, war is awesome!\u201d A week after taking the stage as a part of Deadline\u2019s Contenders TV&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[124067,26771,4111,263697,260714,12,88,48296,1254,8246,1572,12015,12016,92],"class_list":["post-620518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ashley-padilla","tag-aziz-ansari","tag-colin-jost","tag-contenders-tv","tag-devil-wears-prada-2","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-kash-patel","tag-nbc","tag-olivia-rodrigo","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-snl","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620518","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=620518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}