SNL's Colin Jost Reveals Writers Rejected His Hegseth Pulp Fiction' Skit as Too Ridiculous' Then It Actually Happened

A cold open idea involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reading a fake Bible quote from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction was proposed in the writers’ room and rejected as too ridiculous and too time-consuming. Two weeks later, Hegseth recited a passage during a Pentagon service honoring a rescue mission in Iran. He introduced it as CSAR 25:17 and asked the audience to pray with him before delivering a dramatic monologue about vengeance, brotherhood, and the tyranny of evil men. Viewers noticed the wording was not actual scripture and closely matched the Pulp Fiction speech delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s character. The passage was described as a fictionalized version of the biblical verse Ezekiel 25:17.

"We were pitching, we were talking in the writers' room, we were pitching ideas for one of the cold opens, like, two months ago, he said. And I was like, Would it be funny if Hegseth just did that Bible verse that they have in Pulp Fiction?' Remember, they're like, from Ezekiel Samuel L. Jackson, 12:17, Fallon acknowledged."

"Yeah, we talked about it, and we were like, That would be too ridiculous.' And it would take up all this time in the cold open. It would seem like we wouldn't And then he for real did it! the guest cracked. Like two weeks later!"

"The moment Hegseth for real did it drew widespread attention on April 16 after he delivered what he described as a combat prayer during a Pentagon service honoring a rescue mission in Iran. Introducing the passage as CSAR 25:17, a riff on the biblical verse Ezekiel 25:17, the defense secretary asked the audience to pray with me please before reciting a dramatic monologue about vengeance, brotherhood, and the tyranny of evil men."

"But some of those watching quickly noticed the passage was not actually scripture. Much of the wording closely mirrored the famous speech delivered by Jackson's character Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction before he carries out a killing. The passage spoken by Jackson's character was itself a fictionalized version of the Bible verse, as noted by A Public Witness, a religion-themed Substack."

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