Inde Navarrette made her Saturday Night Live hosting debut on Oct. 31, 2026, and she did not hold back. The Obsession star used her opening monologue to fire back at Shane Gillis over his controversial gym joke from earlier in the season, while the night’s cold open brought back Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins — only for James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump to interrupt the Halloween fun.
The episode marked SNL Season 52 Episode 4, the show’s first Halloween night episode in years, and its return after a two-week break. Gracie Abrams served as the musical guest for the second time.
Tom Hanks Returns as David S. Pumpkins, Trump Crashes the Party
The cold open began as a spooky ride through the “Tombs of Doom” at a low-rent Halloween attraction. Grace Reiter and Jeremy Culhane played a young couple on the ride, guided by Kenan Thompson in a Grim Reaper costume. Tom Hanks then appeared in his iconic orange-and-black pumpkin suit as David S. Pumpkins, flanked by Mikey Day and a surprise return from former cast member Bobby Moynihan as skeletons.
Pumpkins managed one jump scare and a signature dance before James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump barged in.
“Boom! It’s me, Donald Trump, your one true God, pausing an ‘SNL’ skit yet again,” Johnson’s Trump declared. “Oh, are you sad you don’t get to see your third David Pumpkins scene? I’ll save you four minutes. He keeps popping up and confusing the people on the ride. The end.”
Trump then listed what he claimed to have in common with Pumpkins: “We both appeared in 2016. We’re both very loud, very orange and, very, frankly, annoying”. The sketch also took aim at Trump’s recent public comments about men’s bodies, with Johnson’s Trump admiring Hanks’ rear end and joking about “gay dementia”.
Saidah Belo-Osagie appeared as Nicki Minaj, auditioning to be Trump’s next press secretary, while Veronika Slowikowska played former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, who botched the show’s famous opening line by saying, “Live from New York, and so many cities!”.
Inde Navarrette Takes a Swipe at Shane Gillis in Her Opening Monologue
Navarrette’s monologue began with her distancing herself from her Obsession character, Nikki. “People ask me if I’m anything like my character Nikki, and I’m like, no. No, no, don’t do that,” she said, before pointing out her boyfriend, Nick Aiello, taped to a chair in the audience.
She then brought up her upcoming role as Rogue in Marvel’s X-Men reboot, noting the physical preparation required. That’s when she delivered the line that drew a mix of laughs and gasps from the Studio 8H audience.
“I know it’s really important for Marvel that you get really fit, so I’ve been working out a lot. So every morning, I put on my little wh*re outfit, and I hit the gym,” she said.
The line was a direct callback to Shane Gillis’ monologue from the Oct. 10, 2026 episode, in which he said he hadn’t been to the gym in so long that he didn’t know “women just dress like wh*res now”.
The Shane Gillis Gym Joke That Sparked the Backlash
Gillis, hosting SNL for the third time, opened his Oct. 10 episode with a monologue that drew groans from the studio audience and swift criticism online. His comments about women’s gym attire were widely condemned, with figures like Dan Levy speaking out.
“Speechless that can exist,” Levy said of the joke, according to The Canadian Press.
SNL cast member Ego Nwodim also responded at the time with a pointed gym selfie on social media. Navarrette’s monologue three weeks later turned the controversy into a punchline, using Gillis’ own language against him while promoting her Marvel role.
Sketch Highlights: Ghost Ships, Unruly Passengers, and a Killer Robot
Beyond the cold open and monologue, the Halloween episode packed in a heavy sketch lineup. One early sketch featured Navarrette and Marcello Hernandez as the ghosts of two 1930s children aboard the Queen Mary, repeatedly interrupting a tourist trying to learn where a ghost’s treasure was hidden.
A fake Delta commercial introduced “Delta Disruptive,” a new section for unruly passengers separated by thick plexiglass panels. “This plane is made out of Israel,” Mikey Day declared while trying to open the exit door.
Navarrette also played a social media-famous woman in a sketch mocking the “She is not real” viral moment, and later appeared as one of the “f*ckboy” contestants on The Uninterested Woman Dating Show alongside Jane Wickline and Sarah Sherman.
In The Inventor, Navarrette played a widow who discovers a robot named PD-44 built by her late husband. When she brings a date home six years later, the robot violently removes the man’s private parts, leading her to conclude, “He did love me. My husband did love me after all”.
A PAW Patrol: Special Victims Unit sketch cast Navarrette as Ryder in a grim murder investigation, and a Spanish-language telenovela sketch saw her and Hernandez struggle through disastrous product placement for Sprite Cherry Lime Habanero.
Gracie Abrams Brings Romeo + Juliet Style to the SNL Stage
Gracie Abrams performed two songs from her latest album cycle. For “Hit the Wall” from her third studio album Daughter from Hell, she wore an angel costume inspired by Claire Danes’ outfit in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, beginning the song from behind an aquarium.
Later in the episode, she sang “Here You Come, There You Go” from the forthcoming deluxe edition of Daughter from Hell, dressed in Leonardo DiCaprio’s tropical button-down shirt and metal sleeves from the same film. The deluxe album is set for release on Nov. 20 with five bonus tracks.
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Social Media Divided Over Navarrette’s Jab
Reactions to Navarrette’s Shane Gillis callback split across social media. Some users praised her for flipping the joke, while others felt the delivery missed the mark.
“Inde Navarrette claps back at Shane Gillis’s famous SNL gym joke during her own monologue tonight,” wrote Mario Nawfal on X.
Another user, Paul A. Szypula, argued the opposite: “Inde Navarrette’s SNL jab at Shane Gillis fell flat Saturday night during her monologue. The delivery was weak and the joke didn’t land”.
The episode aired on NBC and is streaming on Peacock.
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