Bowen Yang Returns to SNL as Jensen Huang in Tech Spy Sketch
Bowen Yang made a surprise return to Saturday Night Live in the cold open, playing Nvidia chief Jensen Huang. The cold open is the opening sketch that comes before the show's title sequence, and it is often the most-watched comedy segment of the night.
John Mulaney hosted the episode, his seventh time as host of the show. He last hosted in November 2024. In the sketch, he played a CIA agent who leads a group of tech billionaires, according to Variety.
The billionaires get a CIA crash course on spotting an espionage honeytrap, meaning a trap that uses romance to lure someone into giving up secrets. The sketch takes its cue from the Nvidia scandal. It refers to Jensen Huang admitting to a romantic relationship with a woman believed to be a spy for China.
Each tech leader was played by a different cast member. James Austin Johnson played Peter Thiel. Andrew Dismukes played Mark Zuckerberg. Jane Wickline played Anthropic chief Dario Amodei. Jeremy Culhane played Elon Musk, and Ben Marshall played OpenAI chief Sam Altman.
Phoebe Bridgers was the musical guest, performing for the second time on the show.
The sketch is built on real business news, so the jokes only work if viewers already know the names and stories. Putting so many public figures into one room is a common format for the show's cold open.
