If you thought Saturday Night Live was going to let a high-profile documentary about Melania Trump pass by without taking a swing, well, you haven’t watched the show very long. Over the weekend, Weekend Update zeroed in on the new documentary Melania, and Colin Jost and Michael Che wasted absolutely no time turning it into a punchline, complete with exaggerated snickering and the kind of inside-the-bubble amusement SNL audiences are known for.
The documentary, which reportedly chronicles the 20 days leading up to President Trump’s second inauguration, just hit theaters, and that alone was enough fuel for Jost. He introduced the film with a grin, joking that it was titled Wicked: For Real, a play on the massively popular Wicked franchise. The studio audience loved it, of course, and SNL leaned all the way in by flashing a fake movie poster on screen. The mock-up featured Melania Trump seated and staring toward the camera, tinted green to really drive home the Wicked comparison.
But the jokes didn’t stop at wordplay or visuals. The segment quickly veered into more pointed territory, particularly Melania Trump’s accent and English language skills. Jost set up another gag by mentioning that the documentary was directed by Brett Ratner, best known for films like Rush Hour. That was the cue for an edited clip from the 1998 comedy to roll, with Melania digitally superimposed over Jackie Chan’s character. Chris Tucker’s famous line, asking if she understands English, was left intact, clearly meant to get a laugh at Melania’s expense.
SNL takes ‘wicked’ dig at Melania Trump documentary, mocks her accent https://t.co/dswoqWBvsg pic.twitter.com/aXkKKKTpNk
— New York Post (@nypost) February 1, 2026
That moment landed exactly how you’d expect with the SNL crowd, though it also revived a familiar criticism of the show. Accents, immigrants, and language barriers are apparently still fair game when the target fits a certain political profile. It’s a type of humor that has been defended for years as satire while simultaneously drawing eye rolls from anyone who notices how selectively it’s applied.
The segment also briefly touched on Ratner himself, noting that Melania is his first feature film in years following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault that surfaced in 2017, allegations he has denied. That context added another layer of controversy to the documentary’s release, even if Weekend Update mostly treated it as just another quick-hit aside rather than something worth unpacking.
Despite the mockery, the business side of the story tells a very different tale. Amazon reportedly paid $75 million for the distribution rights to Melania, and the film pulled in more than $7 million in its opening weekend alone. That makes it the strongest documentary debut in a decade, a detail that quietly undercuts the idea that the project is some kind of cultural flop.
So while SNL laughed, the box office numbers told a story of real interest and real money. Whether viewers see the documentary as compelling, controversial, or purely political, it’s clearly connecting with an audience in a way most documentaries never do. And that contrast, between late-night ridicule and commercial success, may be the most revealing part of the whole situation.
