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

Dan Clarendon March 30, 2025, 10:18 am

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.