The SNL Hegseth cold open took a returning aircraft carrier as its stage this week. On the October 10 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” Colin Jost brought back his loud, overcompensating version of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to greet the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln, days after the real ship docked in San Diego.
The Lincoln came home on October 8 after a 322-day deployment. Reports of broken plumbing, supply shortages and strain on the crew followed the voyage, and the sketch built most of its jokes on them. Jost’s Hegseth wore a belt of miniature Fireball bottles, praised the sailors for “zero working toilets” and sent one man who had held it for 300 days to a nearby Starbucks.
A sketch aimed at current headlines
Hegseth then updated the crew on life back on land. He announced a live-streamed execution planned for December, a joke that tracks a real Pentagon plan to stream the execution of Nidal Hasan, according to Deadline. That plan has drawn criticism from lawmakers in both parties, and the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has also condemned it, Deadline reported. In the sketch, a prisoner who survives the firing squad has to fight Jake Paul.
He also unveiled the Department of War’s new eagle logo, which drew comparisons to Nazi imagery online last week. “It’s an American eagle with a Nazi vibe, okay?” he said when a sailor asked about it.
RFK Jr. joins the crew
James Austin Johnson, usually the show’s Donald Trump, played Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. instead. His Kennedy renamed the season “cold and flu and listeria and measles and trench brain season,” then thanked the sailors for helping test recalled meat. Variety and USA Today both noted that it was a rare cold open without Johnson’s Trump.
Hegseth closed with a mangled tribute, quoting Linkin Park’s “In the End” instead of Abraham Lincoln. The episode was hosted by Shane Gillis, in his third turn as host, with Rosalia as the musical guest. Jost’s Hegseth also appeared in last week’s cold open, which makes this the second straight week the character has led the show.
