“Saturday Night Live” is under fire following its latest cold open, which took aim at Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The sketch has ignited backlash from viewers who slammed the show for what they’re calling a “blatant hit job.”

At the center of the controversy is “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost, who’s facing mounting criticism for his role in the segment.

Following a two-week break, “SNL” returned with a parody centered around a real-life controversy involving a top-secret group chat mix-up.

The skit mocked the White House’s national security team for mistakenly including The Atlantic‘s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal app chat reportedly involving Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In the skit, cast members Mikey Madison, Ego Nwodim, and Sarah Sherman played a trio of teenage girls whose group chat is suddenly infiltrated by Hegseth, portrayed by Andrew Dismukes, blurring the lines between real-world politics and outlandish satire.

“FYI, green light on Yemen raid. Tomahawks airborne 15 minutes ago,” Dismukes’ character announced before delivering more over-the-top lines, including, “Israel better bend over and spread it… Baller. [Water squirt emoji.] God bless the troops. [Eggplant emoji].”

Things escalated when Bowen Yang, playing JD Vance, joined in and the two began to imply Hegseth was drinking on the job.

“Well, I’m going to be bad and make myself a Jack and Coke to celebrate, just the one though,” Dismukes said. Yang responded, “Nice, you promised to stop drinking when you got the job, but it’s like they say in AA, just the one is okay.”

The joke referenced Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, during which he pledged not to drink in office following previous allegations that he appeared intoxicated while on-air at “Fox News.”

Later in the episode, during the “Weekend Update” segment, Colin Jost took further jabs, saying, “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, seen here indicting how many days since his last drink,” while showing a photo of Hegseth holding up a zero.

He added, “Except for Hegseth, life is more like a box of wine,” drawing a comparison to “Forrest Gump.”

The response from viewers was swift and divided. Many slammed the show for making what they saw as baseless personal attacks.

“Must be some way to derail these c-cky b-stards who have such total disregard for the truth,” one viewer wrote. “Pete is clearly a target. Called him a drunk who gave away secrets. Slander much?”

“You really need to go after the clowns at ‘SNL’ for their ‘hit job’ open on Pete Hegseth. Even by their standards, it was pure slander,” another expressed.

Some pointed to Hegseth’s military service and public role, arguing the skit crossed a line.

“’SNL’ mocks Pete Hegseth, but real patriots know he’s a warrior cleaning up global messes,” one supporter commented. “God bless our troops and strong leaders.”

Other critics took aim at the show’s comedy chops.

“The ‘SNL’ Signalgate skit is really stupid,” one person said, while another added, “’SNL’ must be pretty desperate.” A third commenter wrote, “Typical and redundant of ‘SNL,’ their so-called humor is as nonsensical as almost everything DEI related.”

Meanwhile, others praised “SNL,” with some calling it the “best episode yet.”

“I’ve been watching ‘SNL’ since the VERY beginning…and I gotta say tonite’s episode of ‘WEEKEND UPDATE’ was probably one of the BEST EVER!” someone expressed. “In fact, the entire show was absolutely superb… Mikey Madison was superb!”

“‘Weekend Update’ is always my favorite part of ‘SNL’!” another said.

“As I predicted, ‘SNL’ has again become funny now that Trump is back,” a third wrote. “It helps that the jokes write themselves.”

While “SNL” is no stranger to political satire, this latest sketch has reignited debates over the show’s tone, relevance, and whether it’s veering too far into character assassination under the guise of comedy, or if it is continuing to hit the mark when it comes to politics.