Matt Damon returned to Studio 8H on Saturday night as host of Saturday Night Live’s penultimate Season 51 episode, reprising his eight-year-old impression of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh for a cold open that skewered three of Washington’s most controversial figures over a round of drinks at a Georgetown tavern.
The sketch placed Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth at Martin’s Tavern, the legendary D.C. watering hole, alongside Damon’s Kavanaugh — the justice still in his robe and carrying a gavel. Aziz Ansari followed as FBI Director Kash Patel, entering with bottles of bourbon engraved with his own name — a reference to reports that the real Patel has distributed personalized liquor as gifts.
The three-man sketch mined a long list of current headlines: Kavanaugh’s role in gutting the Voting Rights Act and the wave of redistricting it triggered in Southern states, Hegseth’s Iran war, and the Signal chat scandal that has dogged the Defense Secretary for months. When Hegseth asked whether Kavanaugh had accidentally added him to a Signal message, the justice replied, “No, no, I just saw the women covering their drinks.”
The sketch landed its sharpest punch at the end. Damon’s Kavanaugh confided to his companions that Trump would pursue a third term, explaining that the president had found the original Constitution and written “Sike!” at the bottom of it — prompting the trio to jump up and down singing Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping.”
Audience reaction was split. On X, one viewer wrote “one of the best cold opens in awhile,” while others complained the Hegseth-centric format had grown stale, with one post reading “Hegseth and Kavanaugh derangement syndrome all in one. This show is sad.”
Tina Fey, speaking at a History Talks event in Philadelphia in April 2026, praised Damon’s original 2018 Kavanaugh portrayal: “He came in and just played him so perfectly, it helped alleviate a frustration that many viewers of those hearings had. It only works if it’s correct.” She ranked it among the show’s all-time great political impressions.
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Damon’s opening monologue was brief, offering a Mother’s Day message and promoting his upcoming role as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, due in theaters July 17. The Oscar winner, hosting for the third time after previous stints in 2002 and 2018, appeared across several sketches — playing a Navy admiral in a “Godzilla” parody, a father in a cat litter commercial, and a fast-talking auctioneer locked in a crumbling marriage to another auctioneer. Musical guest Noah Kahan performed “The Great Divide” and “Doors.” Will Ferrell closes out Season 51 on May 16, with Paul McCartney as musical guest.
