Overview
- Jost told The Tonight Show on Thursday that SNL rejected his pitch for a cold open of Pete Hegseth reciting the Pulp Fiction Bible speech because it felt too ridiculous and too long.
- At a Pentagon worship service on April 15, Hegseth introduced a prayer he called “CSAR 25:17” and delivered lines that closely matched Samuel L. Jackson’s monologue from the film.
- Hegseth framed the passage as a Combat Search and Rescue tradition tied to the call sign Sandy-1 and a rescue mission in Iran, asking the audience to pray with him.
- Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Hegseth shared a custom CSAR prayer inspired by Pulp Fiction and argued critics were wrong to say he misquoted Ezekiel 25:17.
- Reporters noted the movie speech is a stylized take on the scripture and differs from the actual verse, and the revived attention is fueling broader questions about religious language at Pentagon-run services with no new policy moves reported.