‘Saturday Night Live’ Spoofs Pete Hegseth’s Signal Chat Scandal — See Highlights

Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Mikey Madison, and Andrew Dismukes in March 29 'Saturday Night Live' cold open
NBC

Saturday Night Live practically had its latest cold open fall in its lap this week with the revelation that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed war plans in a not-so-classified Signal group chat.

In case you missed it, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said he was accidentally included in a chat in which Hegseth revealed “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing” regarding a bombing of Houthi targets in Yemen.

Of course, embarrassing national-security breaches make for perfect SNL fodder. See highlights from the NBC show’s March 29 episode below.

Cold open has Hegseth barging into teens’ text chat

The cold open started with teenagers (played by Mikey Madison, host of Saturday’s episode, and cast members Sarah Sherman and Ego Nwodim — texting one another about pick-me girls and glow-ups. Then Hegseth (Andrew Dismukes) crashes the party.

“FYI — Green light on Yemen raid!” he texts. “Tomahawks airborne 15 minutes ago. Who’s ready to glass some Houthi rebels? Flag emoji, flag emoji, flag emoji, flag emoji, flag emoji, fire emoji, eggplant.”

And it only gets worse when Vice President JD Vance (Bowen Yang) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández) join the chat. But it turns out the Trump administration does have one acquaintance in common with the queen bee of the teen group.

“Weekend Update” dunks on Will Smith

After Will Smith released his album Based on a True Story to underwhelming reviews, Michael Chesent a punishing pun his way during Saturday’s “Weekend Update” sketch.

“Will Smith has released his first new album in 20 years, and ironically, the album doesn’t slap,” Che said.

Jury selection goes awry

In Saturday’s “Jury Duty” sketch, a judge played by Nwodim tries to find jurors for a trial but ends up with a bunch of wannabes.

Madison plays a woman trading on a tenuous connection to the Kardashians. James Austin Johnson plays a man who does prank calls in the guise of Jay-Z. Yang is a man convinced he’s from the future. Heidi Gardner plays a woman hoping to become the Mrs. Luigi Mangione by sending photos of her “bare breasts and spread posterior” to the shooting suspect. Chloe Fineman shows off her Parker Posey impression. And Hernandez cartwheels in as an ersatz Benson Boone.

Mikey Madison goes full-on Squidward

In Saturday’s Please Don’t Destroy digital short, Madison surprises Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy by showing up to their brainstorm meeting dressed as Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants. She pitches an HBO-style dramedy casting the SpongeBob characters as “a friend group navigating life in their early 20s,” and the results have to be seen to be believed.

Saturday Night Live, Saturdays, 11:30/10:30c, NBC




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  1. A

    Antonio Montealegre

    I laughed at many of the "Weekend Update" jokes about that Signal chat!

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      GoldRing

      Yeah, Weekend Update was pretty good. But I did like the cold open though. They sorta roasted Vance pretty well. (Which he totally deserves!)

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        GoldBlowdryer

        Yeah I’m sure VP Vance will lose oh maybe a second even thinking about what SNL says about him less alone worrying over it. He and President Trump are busy MAGA while Lib Dems 😥 Dollar General has crying towels fairly cheap !!

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    GoldBlowdryer

    Why didn’t SNL spoof the Afghanistan Nightmare where Thirteen of our military died and Billions of $$$ of equipment was left behind for our enemies. Yet No One was publicly reprimanded by Biden less alone fired ? And why didn’t SNL do a spoof of Benghazi where Four Americans died including an American Ambassador and Obama was Missing for the whole 24 hours and Again No One was publicly reprimanded less alone fired ? Or why didn’t SNL do a spoof on the Clinton’s having not one but Two Private servers in their basement that Hillary who had been a Congressperson and was Then Secretary of Stare said she didn’t know any better ? And Still NO repercussions. Or why didn’t SNL do a spoof on how the IRS under Obama got Caught red handed Targeting Conservative Political groups ?? And Yet Again ZERO repercussions !! And DOGE just found out that 400 IRS officials Owe Back Taxes !! So yeah SNL the L stands for Liberal. Why not do a spoof about SNL Hypocrisy !! That would be Really funny !!!

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    1. B

      BlueCone

      Maybe because that all occurred many years ago

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        GoldBlowdryer

        Or even More maybe is because Lib Dems were in control at that time and they Lie, Distort, and Hide things to protect their own. And these issues were By Far more serious than an error in a computer app. And the Fact that the actual mission was very successful is not being brought up by the liberal media. It’s allot of ado about pretty much nothing but it gives the Desperate Lib Dems a little scrap to whine, moan, and bellyache about. Maybe they should worry much more about their own position.

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