Saturday Night Live (SNL) took aim at Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel in its latest cold open sketch, with Aziz Ansari portraying the embattled bureau chief. The sketch featured Colin Jost as Hegseth, who boasted about military actions in Iran, referencing a TikTok video and calling the conflict a "movie."
In the sketch, Jost's Hegseth addressed the press corps, saying: "Now, listen up, dingbats, OK? As you might have seen on our sick a** TikTok, we've been bombing stuff, doing sick air raids. This war has been a movie, specifically the NeverEnding Story." He later added: "We hit Iran with everything we've got...missiles, bombs, drones and twins. But now we're in a ceasefire — wink."
When a reporter noted that President Donald Trump had declared the war over, Jost replied: "OK, yeah, when he says it, it's cool. And to quote another thing he says, 'You're fired!'" The sketch also referenced the recent shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, which led to the evacuation of Trump and other officials.
Ansari's Patel entered to cheers, declaring: "What up? It's K Dot, AKA Kash with the K, AKA the most effective FBI director this country has ever had, Kash Patel!" He claimed the FBI conducted a thorough investigation into the assassination attempt, adding: "We dotted every T and bulls-ed every I. And for those of you saying I'm doing a bad job running the FBI, well, what if I told you this agency is only six weeks away from pinpointing the exact location of Osama bin Laden?"
The sketch comes amid real-world criticism of Patel's leadership, including a lawsuit against The Atlantic over a profile about his alleged drinking. It also follows Trump's letter to Congress stating hostilities with Iran had been "terminated," though he later warned of possible new strikes if Iran were to "misbehave."
