No topic was off-limits — from Riyadh to “Late Night TV.”
Saturday Night Live’s 51st season opened with a familiar face — and an even more familiar rant. James Austin Johnson reprised his uncanny Donald Trump impression in a cold open that cast the former president as NBC’s self-appointed censorship czar, dropping in to warn the show’s cast not to “go too far” with their jokes.
The sketch began with Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost), here recast as Secretary of Defense, laying down a few eyebrow-raising “new rules” for the military. “No fatties, no facial hair, no body hair,” he ordered. “Just hot, shredded, hairless men who are definitely not gay.” He then declared that America was facing “the greatest threat to freedom and democracy the world has ever known.” The camera cut to Johnson’s Trump, who didn’t miss a beat: “Late night TV!”
That set the tone for what followed — a shot at FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s recent pressure on Disney and ABC after Jimmy Kimmel joked about the death of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. “I’m just here keeping an eye on SNL making sure they don’t do anything too mean about me,” Trump said, claiming he knows “late night TV like the back of my hands.” Cue the punchline: the orange makeup smeared across the back of his right hand. “Not looking great right now!”
From there, Johnson’s Trump moved on to roasting SNL itself. “We all know they were never going to let [Jost] do the whole opening by himself,” he said, before adding, “I thought he would be with his friends at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.
