New York, May 4 (ANI) — FBI Director Kash Patel was the target of an SNL sketch in which Aziz Ansari impersonated him during a spoof press briefing on the war in Iran. The sketch exaggerated circulating reports and suggestions that President Donald Trump was unhappy with Patel’s performance.
Colin Jost, playing US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, introduced Ansari’s Patel: “Someone else wants to come say hello before he’s almost certainly fired. Director of the FBI, Mr. Kash Patel.” Ansari riffed on the phrase “dot the i’s and cross the t’s,” quipping, “We dotted every T and bulged every I,” a nod to a widely shared photo of Patel with notably wide-open eyes.
In the bit, Ansari mocked the FBI, saying the agency was “only six weeks away” from finding Osama bin Laden. He also played on stereotypes, calling himself a “trailblazer” for Indians by proving they can be as incompetent as whites — a line that drew laughter and a high five from Jost.
The impersonation also referenced a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, with Ansari joking that the shooter’s manifesto singled out Patel for not being targeted and riffing on the idea of his unexpected popularity. Other jokes in the sketch lampooned Patel for alleged heavy drinking and for purportedly using government resources to fly a girlfriend around the country to “taste-test” Buffalo Wild Wings — material presented as satire rather than reporting.
According to the New York Times, SNL had difficulty casting an actor of Indian descent to play Patel and ultimately chose Ansari. The episode was hosted by Olivia Rodrigo and opened with Ashley Padilla portraying White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
