When Will Ferrell comes back to Saturday Night Live, subtlety is rarely on the menu.

The comedy veteran returned to Studio 8H this weekend to host the long-running sketch series, with Paul McCartney joining him as musical guest. Before Ferrell even made it to his monologue, he popped up in the cold open as the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein in a twisted parody of A Christmas Carol.

The sketch imagined President Donald Trump, played once again by James Austin Johnson, drifting off to sleep after a trip to China and receiving a supernatural visit from one of his most controversial acquaintances.

Johnson’s Trump first shared a few choice remarks with Vice President JD Vance, portrayed by Jeremy Culhane. Asked why Vance hadn’t accompanied him overseas, Trump replied, “I would have, but I didn’t want to.”

He then handed over a Chinese finger trap that he claimed was a gift from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“What did you give him?” Vance asked.

“Taiwan,” Trump answered.

After laying his head on a gold bar that he said Switzerland gave him “as a straight-up bribe,” Trump was startled by the arrival of Epstein’s ghost, with Ferrell decked out in chains and ragged robes.

“Jeffrey, I thought you were dead!” Trump said.

“I am, remember?” Ferrell responded. “I killed myself. Wink.”

The sketch leaned hard into the uncomfortable humor from there. When Trump complained that his approval rating had fallen into the 30s, Epstein’s ghost didn’t sound impressed.

“Gross,” he said. “Call me when it hits 17.”

Later, when Trump tried to celebrate with a high five, Ferrell deadpanned, “You know what? This time I’m going to leave you hanging.”

Like the spirits in Dickens’s story, Epstein’s ghost offered Trump a series of glimpses into what the future might hold.

One vision featured Ashley Padilla as Kristi Noem, now hawking vacuum cleaners on the Home Shopping Network.

“The best way to clean up that mess your dog made — besides a gun,” she said.

Another imagined Colin Jost as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth teaming up with guest star Aziz Ansari as FBI Director Kash Patel to host a podcast.

Their fictional sponsor was a fragrance called Incompetent, which Ansari described as being made from his forehead sweat and “a smell so strong it’ll cross your eyes.”

“I guess that means the war in Iran is over,” Trump said.

“Yup,” Epstein answered. “We came in second.”

Ferrell’s night was only getting started.

When it came time for his monologue, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers — who has long embraced comparisons to Ferrell — briefly appeared in his place. Ferrell soon burst onto the stage, pretending Smith had shoved him backstage and stolen his spotlight.

“Lorne had to give me mouth-to-mouth,” he joked, referring to longtime SNL creator Lorne Michaels.

McCartney also joined Ferrell during the monologue, gamely standing by as the host excitedly rattled off beloved The Beatles titles. The music icon later returned for a sketch set in an auto repair shop and capped off the evening with performances of “Days We Left Behind,” Band on the Run and Coming Up.

Christmas may still be months away, but SNL found a way to deliver a holiday ghost story anyway — one that was equal parts absurd, unsettling and unmistakably Ferrell.