‘SNL’ Found Something Colin Jost Is Good at Other Than Weekend Update

The Season 51 cold open for Saturday Night Live had a lot of ground to cover: There were the last few months of the Trump presidency, the embattled late-night shows, all of the sellouts who went to Riyadh for fat checks and the increasing criticism surrounding SNL itself. Even one of these topics would be enough to bog down the opening sketch of the show, but SNL managed to fit it all in. 

And to do it, they kept the cast thin — newbie Jeremy Culhane introduced “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, played by an entirely too convincing Colin Jost. In what was the longest Jost has been on-screen outside of Weekend Update in a long time, Jost gave an almost uncanny performance as the former Fox News host. This might be because all that separates the two men is an undamaged frontal lobe and a slightly different haircut, but still. 

That said, Jost’s resemblance and knack for playing country club terrors wasn’t the only thing that made it such an impressive first few minutes on the show. The sketch, which also featured James Austin Johnson, was quick on its feet to address the breadth of insanity that transpired while the show was in between seasons. 

Jost kept his arms awkwardly out from his body, just like Hegseth, splurting out a flurry of hateful-meets-stupid words like “fuggos.” From calling ICE officers “sick,” “twisted” and “fat” to getting in a jab at Trump’s planned invasion of Portland, Oregon, Jost kept it moving swiftly, teeing it up perfectly for JAJ to come in as Trump. 

“I’m just here keeping my eye on SNL,” Johnson’s Trump explained. “SNL 51 off to a rough start. Seventeen new cast members, and they got the Update guy doing the open. Look at Colin. Poor Colin! We all know they were never gonna let him do the whole opening by himself.”

Then, Trump went in on Jost and Michael Che, before slipping in a dig at all of the comedians who performed at the Riyadh Comedy Festival. “We love the Saudis, because they like to ‘saw-deez’ journalists in half,” JAJ Trump said, to a mixture of gasps, groans and guffaws from the audience. 

For a show that has us (frequently) wondering if it’s time to ditch the political cold open, SNL made a pretty strong opening argument for its continued existence — and gave Colin Jost some to do other than Weekend Update.