SNL brings back Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth for Navy homecoming sketch

Colin Jost reported for duty again on Saturday Night Live, returning as Pete Hegseth to greet sailors coming home after almost a year at sea.

The Oct. 10 cold open — the opening sketch before the title sequence — put Jost's Hegseth aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to welcome back the crew from Operation Epic Fury, as detailed by Variety. It was his second week in a row in the role.

The costume did a lot of the work. Jost wore an ammunition belt stocked with miniature bottles of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky. The sketch then ran through a list of jokes about life on an extended deployment, including broken plumbing and zero working toilets on board.

The sketch widened beyond the ship. James Austin Johnson appeared as RFK Jr. to deliver a health update. Other gags included Hegseth unveiling the Department of War's new eagle logo and a joke about plans for a televised execution in December where a prisoner who survived the firing squad would fight Jake Paul.

The material drew directly on real events around the carrier. The real USS Abraham Lincoln returned to San Diego two days before the episode after a 322-day deployment supporting the U.S. war against Iran, including more than 260 consecutive days at sea without a port call. Reports cited eight suicide attempts among personnel assigned to the carrier strike group during that deployment.

Hegseth visited the ship on the Wednesday before the broadcast. He presented the crew with the Presidential Unit Citation and acknowledged personally approving two extensions of its deployment.

For viewers, this means Jost's Hegseth is becoming a recurring turn this season. He also played the part in the previous week's cold open. NBC notes he first played Hegseth — identified as a former Fox News anchor whose title is Secretary of War — in its February 28 "Trump Iran War Address" cold open, listed on NBC.