SNL cold open sees Aziz Ansari debut as Kash Patel in Iran press sketch

Saturday Night Live featured a surprise appearance by Aziz Ansari during its cold open on May 2, with the comedian portraying FBI director Kash Patel in a political satire sketch.

The segment, titled “Hegseth and Patel Iran Press Briefing Cold Open”, began with Ashley Padilla as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announcing her maternity leave.

Colin Jost, appearing as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, then addressed reporters in a mock press briefing.

During the exchange, Jost’s character responded to a question about referencing a fictional Bible verse by saying, “Yeah! But also, I do believe that someday it will be… Now I’m not going to apologise because I wear my religion on my sleeve, literally. I have a tattoo on my forearm of Jesus choking out Jimmy Kimmel.”

He later added, “OK, everyone’s always asking me, when is this war gonna be over? That’s like asking when is sex gonna be over? Answer: When the man is done.”

Ansari’s entrance as Patel marked the first time he has portrayed the figure on the programme. Addressing criticism within the sketch, he said, “For those of you saying I’m doing a bad job running the FBI, well, what if I told you this agency is only six weeks away from pinpointing the exact location of Osama bin Laden?”

The character continued with a series of remarks, including: “Hell no! President Trump loves me. Everybody loves me, even the Correspondents’ Dinner shooter said, ‘Kill everyone, but Mr Patel.’ You get a shout-out like that in a psycho’s manifesto, you must be doing something right.”