NBC
On the first Saturday Night Live episode after each of the past two presidential elections, Dave Chappelle served as host and used the opportunity to share his thoughts about the state of American politics. The comedian returned for a third time this week after the midterms, but this time something was different.
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. And before he even took the stage at Studio 8H for his monologue, there was palpable anger on social media and the 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.
But while he made a point to avoid the topic that has seemingly consumed him for the past couple of years, Chappelle may have dug himself an even deeper hole by—deliberately—defending the essence of Kanye West’s antisemitic rhetoric through comedy.