The Independent66%
SNL’s Trump and Will Ferrell as Epstein’s ghost sing ‘Just the Two of Us’ in season finale 6%
By Mike Bedigan0%
5/17/2026, 4:42:38 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, Negativity Bias, and Availability Heuristic, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 22.6% saturation with 103 hits. Analysis detected 503 faulty-reasoning hits from 455 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 21.8% and a BS Rank of 6% (19,292 of 20,370 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.70% of the article peer group.
Saturday Night Live’s 51st season finale saw show legend and episode host Will Ferrell appearing as the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein to sing a duet with President Donald Trump.
Trump, played by cast member James Austin Johnson, was woken up from a nap in the Oval Office by Ferrell, dressed as a Dickensian, Jacob Marley-like ghost who joked and reminisced with the president.
“How’s heaven?”
Austin’s Trump asked.
“Really, really hot,” Ferrell said.
“How are your approval ratings?”
Johnson replied they are “in the 30s.”
“Gross!”
Ferrell’s Epstein said.
“Call me when they’re 17.”
Trump’s relationship with Epstein, which the president has consistently and strenuously denied, has been a major headache for the administration throughout Trump’s second term.
The president has denied wrongdoing and has characterized efforts to release millions of documents in the Justice Department’s possession as a politically motivated “hoax” against him.
Trump has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing, and one’s appearance in the Epstein files does not suggest otherwise.
The president has acknowledged that he knew the disgraced financier and sex offender but maintained that their friendship ended long before Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
“Man, we had some fun times together, didn't we Donny?”
Ferrell said.
“We should have taken more pictures.”
“No, it's really bad that we took any,” Johnson replied.
Ferrell then offered to show Johnson “visions of the future,” showing where administration officials end up in six months’ time.
Now-former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, played by cast member Ashley Padilla, was seen selling Shark Wand vacuum cleaners on the Home Shopping Network, joking that it was “the best way to clean up that mess your dog made … besides a gun.”
Defense Secretary Pete Heseth, played by cast member Colin Jost, then appeared pouring a “giant beer bong” for FBI director Kash Patel, played by comedian Anziz Ansari, on the Kashcast podcast, where the FBI director was selling a cologne made from sweat from his Senate hearings.
Hegseth, meanwhile, is selling “Poland Sprung,” “the first-ever hard water.”
Back in the Oval office, Ferrell told Johnson that “people will always associate you with me … my dear, close friend, that is a beautiful thing” — appearing to echo an alleged birthday letter sent by Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday.
The president has vehemently denied sending the letter to Epstein and sued The Wall Street Journal for publishing it.
The pair closed the cold open sketch with a duet of “Just The Two of Us” by Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr. after Ferrell’s Epstein showed him visions of the future of his administration.
Speakers
2speakers6.6%attributed speech425writer words
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50%flagged-word coverageJames Austin Johnson
20 attributed words67% of attributed speech70% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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