Matt Damon returned to Saturday Night Live on May 9, 2026, and the night opened with the Oscar winner reviving one of his most memorable political impressions. The SNL cold open put Damon back in the robe as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then dropped him into Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown with Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth and Aziz Ansari’s Kash Patel.
The result was a bar sketch built around Washington power, alcohol jokes, and political satire. It also answered the night’s most searched question: Matt Damon hosts Saturday Night Live and plays Brett Kavanaugh again, while the show uses the setup to bring together three figures who have all faced public scrutiny tied to drinking-related claims.
Matt Damon Returns as Brett Kavanaugh at Martin’s Tavern
The SNL Brett Kavanaugh sketch was set at Martin’s Tavern, the Georgetown restaurant identified in the cold open. WTOP noted that the scene began in New York but was presented as the familiar D.C. restaurant.
In the sketch, Jost’s Hegseth is already at the bar when Damon’s Kavanaugh arrives. Damon’s Kavanaugh greets him with, “Pistol Pete,” before adding, “I kind of figured I was going to find you here.” Jost’s Hegseth replies, “Oh, did I include you on a Signal chat by accident?”
Damon’s Kavanaugh then lands one of the cold open’s sharper lines: “No, I just saw all the women covering their drinks!” The joke framed the sketch’s larger target: the public allegations and reputations surrounding Hegseth, Kavanaugh, and Patel, all three of whom have publicly denied the claims referenced in coverage.
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Who Plays Kash Patel on SNL?
Who plays Kash Patel on SNL? Aziz Ansari returned as FBI Director Kash Patel, joining Matt Damon and Colin Jost in the sketch. WTOP identified Patel as played by actor and comedian Aziz Ansari, Hegseth as played by Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost, and Kavanaugh as played by host Matt Damon.
Ansari’s Patel enters with a bottle gag. “I made my own FBI bourbon with my name on it,” Patel says. The bit referenced reporting that Patel travels with Woodford Reserve bottles engraved with “Kash Patel FBI Director.” Ansari’s Patel then turns to the audience and says, “Yes, somehow this is a real thing that I, the FBI director, have made. This is real.”
The trio eventually leans into a Chumbawamba singalong, closing the cold open with “Tubthumping.” That ending turned the barroom premise into a deliberately rowdy image of Washington insiders celebrating power, survival, and bad behavior.
The Political Jokes Behind the SNL Cold Open Last Night
The SNL cold open last night used Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court role as the spine of the sketch. Damon’s Kavanaugh jokes about a “6-3 decision,” while coverage described the line as tied to a recent Supreme Court decision weakening the Voting Rights Act and opening more room for racial gerrymandering disputes.
He also shows off what he calls “a new voting district that I approved in Tennessee.” Then he undercuts himself by admitting, “They told me to draw a circle.” The map gag works because the sketch turns a redistricting joke into a field sobriety test joke.
The cold open also pushes the satire into bigger constitutional absurdity. Kavanaugh tells the others, “We’re gonna let Trump do a third term,” then adds that Trump found the original Constitution and wrote “Psych!” at the end. The sketch makes the joke broad, but the target stays clear: a fantasy of institutional permission dressed up as a drunken confession.
SNL Cast 2026: Cold Open Roles and Episode Highlights
The key SNL cast 2026 breakdown for this cold open is straightforward: Matt Damon played Brett Kavanaugh, Colin Jost played Pete Hegseth, and Aziz Ansari played Kash Patel. The episode was the penultimate installment of Season 51, and Damon was hosting for the third time.
Entertainment Weekly traced Damon’s SNL history back to a small Mango-related cameo in 2001. He hosted for the first time in 2002 during the season premiere, appeared in a digital short in Season 37, and returned multiple times in 2018, both as host and as Brett Kavanaugh.
The episode also leaned heavily into Mother’s Day. Damon’s monologue promoted Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which was said to be arriving in nine weeks. He joked that the usual cast-mom tradition could not happen because Spirit Airlines had shut down, then turned a fake video message to moms into another promotion for the film.
The night’s other sketches included “Godzilla Movie,” “Mom Movie Trailer,” “Tough Guys,” “Tidy Care Crystals,” “Substitute Teacher’s Goodbye,” and “Auctioneers.” Good Will Hunting also surfaced indirectly through Entertainment Weekly’s Victoria Jackson quotes, as she joked that it was “too mathematical” for her.
Noah Kahan SNL Performances and What Came Next
Noah Kahan was the SNL musical guest tonight for Damon’s episode. The Noah Kahan SNL set included “The Great Divide” and “Doors.” Entertainment Weekly described “The Great Divide” as a single off his new album and part of his solo comeback after nearly three years out of the spotlight.
The episode arrived one week before the Season 51 finale. Several same-day recaps noted that Will Ferrell and Paul McCartney were scheduled for that finale, making Damon and Kahan the final host-musical guest pairing before the season closer.
For Saturday Night Live, the cold open worked because it did not need a complicated setup. Three public figures walk into a bar, and the sketch lets Damon, Jost, and Ansari turn that premise into a compact political roast. For Matt Damon, it was also a reminder that his Brett Kavanaugh impression still has bite eight years after its 2018 debut.
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