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Colin Jost Says SNL Considered but Rejected Hegseth Bible Quote Sketch Before Pentagon Prayer
The Saturday Night Live writer pitched a cold open based on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reciting a Bible verse from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. SNL writers dismissed the idea as too ridiculous. Hegseth performed a version of the sketch in real life at an April worship service at the Pentagon.
May 15, 1:21 PM·2m read1 source
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Saturday Night Live head writer Colin Jost, 43, disclosed on Thursday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that a sketch idea he pitched two months earlier came true in real life. Jost told host Jimmy Fallon he had suggested an SNL cold open in which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, 45, recited the Bible verse featured in the movie Pulp Fiction.
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" Jost recalled pitching to the SNL writers.
The writers rejected the idea for being too ridiculous and because it would take up too much time in the cold open. Two weeks after the pitch, Hegseth performed the rejected scenario. Last month, during a worship service at the Pentagon in April, Hegseth delivered a sermon in which he said the prayer "CSAR 25:17," which stands for Combat Search and Rescue.
Hegseth claimed CSAR 25:17 was meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17. He urged the audience to pray with him and recited: "The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil man. Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee. " Hegseth's prayer instead mirrored the fictional version delivered by Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 crime thriller Pulp Fiction.
