Dave Chappelle Killed It On SNL Over The Weekend, Especially His 15 Minute Monologue
Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live for a third time this weekend. Chappelle previously hosted the SNL episodes immediately following the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections; this time he was following the 2022 midterms.
It was Chappelle’s first time hosting SNL since he came under fire for a slew of transphobic jokes in his latest Netflix special, The Closer.
Leading up to the show, there was allegedly a threat of a boycott from the show’s writers, especially given that this season SNL has its first gender nonbinary cast member in Molly Kearney. Pat covered it last week.
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Instead of addressing his own controversy, or the alleged unrest in the SNL writers room, Chappelle took aim at a possibly even more sensitive subject - Kanye West and his antisemitic rhetoric the past month.
As only Chappelle can do, he navigated the fine line between defending Kanye's actions, while speaking candidly through comedy.
He ended his thoughts on the matter with a poignant statement on the state of comedy and free speech -
“It shouldn’t be this scary to talk about anything. It’s making my job incredibly difficult. And to be honest with you, I’m sick of talking to a crowd like this. I love you to death and I thank you for your support. And I hope they don’t take anything away from me… whoever they are.”
His other skits included -
One where he plays a legendary blues musician who he sings about his potato hole
One that invokes the characters from The Chappelle Show's famous "Playa Hatas Ball" sketch-
One that centers around a black barber shop where they talk about Kanye West, Stacey Abrams, COVID-19, and other topics.
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A Heaven sketch where Chappelle bows out right at the top-
(Sidebar - Weekend Update was a pleasant surprise this episode.)
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p.s. - Chappelle's boys Black Star performed and also fucking killed it-
p.p.s. - never forget -
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p.p.p.s. - are the SNL writers that were all pissed off that Chappelle was hosting this week aware that the show they write for ran a series of sketches called "It's Pat" for years, and even produced a movie on the character?