NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” kicked off its latest broadcast on Saturday with a cold open taking aim at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., satirizing a series of recent Trump administration controversies.
The sketch featured cast member Colin Jost reprising his role as Hegseth, welcoming home sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Jost appeared wearing an ammunition belt loaded with miniature bottles of cinnamon whiskey, greeting the returning crew following an arduous overseas deployment.
Satirizing execution plans and military branding
The parody centered heavily on recent announcements regarding federal capital punishment. The Pentagon recently confirmed plans to stream the December execution of Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Deadline reported. The decision prompted widespread pushback from lawmakers across both parties, while the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced the broadcast as a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.”
During the sketch, Jost’s Hegseth declared that “public executions are back,” joking that if the condemned prisoner survived a firing squad, he would be scheduled to box Jake Paul, according to TheWrap.
The comedy show also mocked a redesigned eagle insignia introduced for the Defense Department, which administration officials refer to as the Department of War. The emblem sparked online comparisons to Third Reich symbols after Hegseth delivered an address at the Air Force Academy, Deadline noted. When a sailor in the sketch asked if the backdrop was “a Nazi eagle,” Jost replied that it was simply an American design “with a Nazi vibe.”
Carrier conditions and health updates
The sketch drew heavily from the real-world return of the USS Abraham Lincoln, which arrived in San Diego two days earlier after a 322-day mission tied to military actions involving Iran, Variety reported. The aircraft carrier remained at sea for more than 260 straight days without a single port visit, enduring supply problems, plumbing failures and crew mental health struggles that included eight attempted suicides.
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Later in the scene, cast member James Austin Johnson appeared as Kennedy, imitating the health secretary’s raspy voice while speaking to the exhausted sailors. Johnson’s character jokingly suggested extending cold and flu season to encompass measles and listeria, referencing a severe domestic measles surge reported by Rolling Stone. The character also joked about recent federal meat recalls, claiming alternative proteins such as cricket and pony were fed to the crew during their voyage.
Jost’s Hegseth concluded his address by singing lines from the rock band Linkin Park’s hit song “In the End,” before thanking the sailors for their willingness to sink with their vessel.
The Oct. 10 episode marked the third hosting appearance for stand-up comic Shane Gillis, joined by musical guest Rosalía. While the late-night show turned the administration’s actions into fodder for satire, the Pentagon has not altered its scheduled execution timetable, and military officials have not stated whether further changes to service member deployment lengths or equipment logos are forthcoming.
