Saturday Night Live faced fury from its audience after brutally mocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his past drinking allegations and plans to livestream an execution. 

Colin Jost, 44, portrayed an unhinged Hegseth, 46, dressed in an ammunition belt loaded with bottles of Fireball whiskey, during the show's cold open.

Jost took aim at the Pentagon chief's alleged history with alcohol, which he has denied, in his usual aggressive impression on Saturday night. 

'In December as we get into the Christmas spirit, we're gonna execute a guy in a wheelchair on live TV. Public executions are back!' Jost shouted as he joked about the planned execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan.

'And if the guy somehow survives the firing squad, then he's got to fight Jake Paul. So check that out,' he added, in reference to the recent botched execution of another death row inmate, Christa Pike, in Tennessee. 

Hasan, 56, was sentenced to death after killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre. Hegseth has since sparked outrage over plans to livestream the wheelchair-bound killer's execution by firing squad in December.

During an interview aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday, the defense secretary said that the US Army has not conducted firing squad executions since World War II and added: 'Well I kind of like the mentality we had in World War II, which was win.'

'We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things,' Hegseth said.

Jost also made a joke about the Department of War's new eagle logo, which was projected behind him on the podium. He defended as 'an American eagle with a Nazi vibe, okay?' after critics this week claimed it took inspiration from the Third Reich. 

Saturday Night Live's portrayal of Hegseth also poked fun at the USS Abraham Lincoln's record 321-day deployment during the war with Iran, which included 265 consecutive days at sea without returning to a port.

During the deployment, service members reported dismal conditions aboard the aircraft carrier and eight sailors attempted suicide, according to Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao. 

'I couldn't be more proud of you. Only eight of you attempted suicide,' Jost said during the cold open. 'Two of you since I started talking.' 

Jost's Hegseth then told the Navy crew about his decorative Fireball sash, saying: 'I'm wearing an ammunition belt made of Fireball cinnamon whiskey - the only alcohol designed to taste better on the way back up.' 

The sketch drew outrage from MAGA supporters online. 'Haven't seen SNL in a dog's age. Thought I'd go slumming. The Pete Hegseth parody cold opening was staggeringly unfunny,' one user on X wrote. 

'SNL is so bad that their liberal media friends have to recap the propaganda disguised as comedy that everyone intentionally ignored,' another user said. 

'Shows just how much DEMOCRAT SNL hates our military,' a third chimed in. 

'Snl writers discovering pete hegseth every week like its new is the real bit,' a fourth user said. 

'Pathetic excuse for humor,' a fifth simply said.

Hegseth's plan for the execution drew widespread condemnation from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle earlier this week. 

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN that a livestreamed execution would be 'disgusting' and said: 'What is he mimicking ISIS executions? That's what America has become? That's pretty extraordinary.' 

Republican Senator Thom Tillis likewise called it 'beyond disgusting' in a post on X and said: 'Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.' 

Republican Representative Austin Scott said on X that he supports the death sentence for Hasan, 'but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.'