Posted in: Current News, NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL 51 Cold Open: Pete Hegseth Gets Defensive; Trump Dreams of Mamdani

In tonight's SNL Cold Open, Pete Hegseth gets very defensive, Donald Trump has sexy dreams about incoming NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and more.

After a two-week holiday break, NBC's Saturday Night Live returned tonight with host Melissa McCarthy and musical guest Dijon for the first of three new shows ahead of the end-of-the-year break. After this weekend, we have host Josh O'Connor and musical guest Lily Allen set for December 13th, with the midseason finale featuring host Ariana Grande and musical guest Cher on December 20th. But let's shift the spotlight back to tonight, with a whole lot of folks wondering what the topic will be for tonight's SNL Cold Open. There's usually more than enough to choose from week-to-week, but after two weeks?

We've got Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) getting a chest-bumping intro for a C-SPAN press conference. Yup, they're tackling the allegations that Hegseth ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan fishing boat that was left with two survivors clinging to the overturned boat. "Kelly? That's a girl's name!" was Hegseth's response to being asked about Mark Kelly's criticisms about Hegseth being out of his league on any number of levels. Then, Sarah Sherman's Matt Gaetz makes an appearance as part of the "press," making sure there wasn't other trafficking being policed.

It's scary just how good of a job Jost does playing a dude-bro asshole – and bonus points for James Austin Johnson's sleeping Trump dreaming of incoming NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Trump takes the offer, arguing that "fog of war" is a great expression to use – especially when you've committed war crimes. Unfortunately, Trump fell asleep before he could take any more questions, with Hegseth looking to use that time to get Trump another MRI. Here's a look at what went down – and keep your ear tuned to a great Animaniacs reference.

SNL Dragged Into The White House's Weird Sabrina Carpenter Obsession

Can you get a restraining order against The White House? We're asking because Trump's folks have this weird obsession with music sensation Sabrina Carpenter that's already well beyond creepy at this point. First, they used Carpenter's song "Juno" in one of their ICE deportation videos – only to take it down after 1.7 million people and counting supported Carpenter's pushback on having her music used without permission. Then, The White House decided it was a good move to go after Carpenter again – and drag SNL into the mess. In a new clip, Trump's folks thought it would be hysterical to post the promo Carpenter did with SNL star Marcello Hernández from when she hosted and performed back in October. At one point, Carpenter says to Hernández, "I think I might need to arrest someone for being too hot." But… wait for it… The White House substituted "illegal" for "too hot," and then followed it with more ICE fetish clips and some corny 80s' action movie-like caption.

We'll give you a second to collect yourself because we're sure – like us – you lost your collective shit laughing from just how hysterical that was. Get it? They changed the words! Seriously, we're not sure what The White House is hoping to gain by bringing SNL into this, considering how SNL has (much like Comedy Central's South Park) gone scorched earth on Trump and his folks over the past several months (and with Trump offering nothing in response). Between the still-unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files and rumblings that Pete Hegseth could be guilty of committing war crimes, we can imagine that Trump's folks are looking for a whole lot of "lesser evil" distractions.

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