Signalgate gets the Mean Girls treatment in Saturday Night Live cold open

Saturday Night Live's episode on March 29 took on "Signalgate" in a cold open that mashed up teenage gossip culture with serious government blunders. In a sketch that felt part Mean Girls, part national security briefing, three teenage girls chatted over Signal, only to be pulled into a highly classified conversation by accident.

The girls, played by Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, and host Mikey Madison, were mid-gossip about school drama when things took a turn. "FYI: Green light on Yemen raid," popped into their chat. What started as jokes about classmates suddenly became a front-row seat to reckless, emoji-filled war plans. It was Saturday Night Live at its sharpest, using humor and role reversal to highlight just how absurd the real-life messaging mix-up had been.

---

Saturday Night Live casts teenage girls into the national security disaster

In Saturday Night Live's retelling, Jeffrey Goldberg, played by Mikey Day, wasn’t the only unintended recipient of sensitive information. Instead, he was joined by three high school girls who had zero connection to military operations. As the sketch unfolded, Pete Hegseth, played by Andrew Dismukes, gleefully shared updates:

"Tomahawks airborne 15 minutes ago. Who’s ready to glass some Houthi rebels? Flag emoji, flag emoji, flag emoji, fire emoji, eggplant."

Soon, other Trump administration figures joined the accidental group chat. Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández) appeared from his bedroom. J.D. Vance (Bowen Yang) bundled up in Greenland. Each congratulated the others, dropped a slew of emojis, and chatted about military secrets as casually as the girls talked about outfits at school.

Throughout it all, the girls kept trying to flag the mistake.

"Um, do we know you, bro?" Madison's character asked.

Nwodim's character added:

"Hey, I think you have the wrong group chat."

Still, the texts kept coming, with Hegseth joking:

"Could you imagine if that actually happened? Homer disappear into bush GIF."

---

Saturday Night Live blurs the line between satire and reality

As the sketch barreled forward, Saturday Night Live kept the absurdity coming. Vance, still bundled up in Greenland, checked in to the chat:

"Nobody knows why I'm here, especially me. But praise Trump—our work here is mysterious and important."

The officials, lost in their emojis and memes, ignored every warning from the girls. By the end of the sketch, the behavior of the officials—sending GIFs, fire emojis, and "eggplant" emojis—was more immature than the high school girls'.

---

Fresh angles in familiar political satire

Even though political cold opens are a staple, Saturday Night Live managed to bring fresh energy to this one. The sketch didn’t just impersonate public figures—it reframed the entire scandal through a teenage lens, making it all the more ridiculous and relatable.

Rather than going for heavy-handed jokes, the sketch let the contrast do the work. The teenage girls showed patience and maturity. The government officials acted rashly, emotionally, and thoughtlessly. It wasn’t an exaggeration; it was a simple, funny reimagining of how careless things had gotten.

With clever lines like:

"Hey, while I got everyone, sending a PDF with updated locations of all our nuclear submarines."

and

"Could you imagine if that actually happened? Homer disappear into bush GIF."

Saturday Night Live kept the satire smart and grounded.

In the end, Saturday Night Live's latest cold open proved why the show remains so sharp when it comes to political commentary. By casting teenage girls as the responsible ones, it reminded viewers that sometimes, real life needs no embellishment to be hilarious—or alarming.