Colin Jost has spent most of his time at Saturday Night Live telling jokes behind the Weekend Update desk, but over the last year or so, he’s started appearing in more traditional sketches. Most prominently, he’s started playing Secretary Of Defense Pete Hegseth in many of the show’s political bits. To viewers, he’s looked really comfortable doing the impersonation, but apparently below the surface, he’s wrestled with some feelings.
Jost was joined by former SNL star Kate McKinnon for a public conversation at the History Talks event at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on Saturday. Put on by Comcast, the extravaganza also included panels, discussions and Q&As with Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Nicole Kidman and more. During Jost and McKinnon’s chat, the subject of political impressions came up, which McKinnon has a ton of experience with. She said she spent a lot of time thinking about the feelings of the person she was playing, whether she agreed with them politically or not.
Jost joked that he doesn't worry about them at all because they’re “sacks of meat” before getting really honest about how he deals with the emotions. Here’s a portion of his quote, which references Slaughterhouse Five author Kurt Vonnegut, per Deadline…
Article continues belowWe’re not, mean people … There’s a Kurt Vonnegut line that I really love, he talks about how, when you get to the gates of heaven, a great excuse is to say I never asked to be born. I always think about that … We have to give people a lot of leeway because no one asked to be born, and also no one asked to be born into lots of different circumstances that people are born into. And I think we have to recognize that in other people.
You can interpret his quote a lot of different ways, but personally, I see it like this. Everyone came from somewhere and was born into various circumstances that changed them. You might agree or disagree with them because of their personality or their takes on a particular issue, but it’s important to remember they’re human beings that got to this particular place in their life for a reason.
That being said, to do impressions well, there has to be a balance between honoring their humanity but also having a little fun at their expense. It is supposed to be comedy, after all, and you can also recognize someone’s humanity while also pointing out the more ridiculous parts of their personality and worldview.
Jost has really come into his own on Saturday Night Live recently. The former head writer and longtime Weekend Update co-anchor has evolved into being more of a regular cast member. He’s now sometimes in multiple sketches and is a way better actor than the fanbase thought. I suspect he’s going to stick around for another year or two in order to continue developing his on-screen method, but afterwards, it’s possible he could go to Hollywood and become a traditional actor. I’m not saying he’s going to rival his wife Scarlett Johansson, but he could get to the point where he’s paying for his own ferry boat.
Saturday Night Live is currently on hiatus, but it’ll return at the beginning of May with the three final episodes of the season. Fingers crossed in addition to the exciting slate of hosts, we also get to see a few more great celebrity impersonations from Jost.
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