“Saturday Night Live” Opens with Ferrell as Epstein’s ghost Hanging out with Trump
Published
“Saturday Night Live” wasted no time delving into controversy during the Season 51 finale, opening the series with a brutally dark sketch featuring Will Ferrell like the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein haunted Donald Trump inside the Oval Office.
The cold open started with an actor James Austin Johnson depicting President Trump, who fell asleep behind the Resolute desk before being startled by the arrival of Epstein’s apparition chained by Ferrell.
the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein visits Trump pic.twitter.com/CjxMmIdYpT @nbcsnl
Ferrell’s version of the disgraced financier jokingly announced that he had returned to visit his “best friend,” while Johnson’s Trump reacted enthusiastically before complaining about falling approval numbers.
The skit leaned heavily on bold humor, with Trump asking Epstein what heaven was like. Ferrell quickly responded, “It’s really, really hot.”
Johnson’s Trump then talked about his upcoming plans, including attending the World Cup, hosting weird “Patriot Games” for high school students and staging a UFC fight on the White House lawn “like white trash on Worldstar.”
One of the sketch’s darkest jokes came when the comedian’s portrayal of Trump asked the fictional Epstein to give him a high-five, only for him to respond, “You know what, this time I’m going to leave you hanging”… a dark reference to Epstein’s death in prison.
The situation escalated with Epstein sharing surreal “visions” of the administration’s future, including that of the former Secretary of Homeland Security. Kristi Noem sell products on the Home Shopping Network and the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth smoking marijuana during podcast appearance with FBI director Kash Patel.
Ferrell’s Epstein finally got serious for one last jab, warning Trump that regardless of political distractions, the public would never stop linking the two.
The sketch ended with Ferrell and Johnson launching into a parody duet of Grover Washington Jr. And Bill Withers“ “Just the Two of Us,” capping off one of the series’ most provocative season openers in recent memory.