EGN NEWS DESK
When Dave Chappelle hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2016, 4 days after the presidential election, he ended his monologue with a thought of President-elect Donald J. Trump. “I’m wishing Donald Trump luck,” Chappelle mentioned on the time. “And I’m going to offer him an opportunity, and we, the traditionally disenfranchised, demand that he give us one too.”
Chappelle got here again to host “S.N.L.” the weekend after the 2020 presidential election and midterm vote of 2022, however though he was invited to the identical slot in 2024, he declined. In an extended and energetic monologue on this weekend’s broadcast, he defined why.
Recounting a dialog with Lorne Michaels, the “S.N.L.” creator and govt producer, Chappelle mentioned, “I used to be like, ‘Nah, man, I’m cool,’” including: “Things are going good. I completed my Netflix deal. I obtained all this cash and stuff.” But Michaels continued, so to get off the telephone, Chappelle mentioned, he provided a compromise: “I mentioned, ‘Just save the date closest to Jan. 6.’”
Dressed in a swimsuit and tie and taking occasional drags from a cigarette, Chappelle commented on a variety of stories occasions, together with the Los Angeles wildfires. “It is means too quickly to do jokes a few disaster like that,” he mentioned, a mischievous grin crossing his face.
He talked about how the fires had affected his mates and colleagues just like the actors Cary Elwes and Dennis Quaid and the rapper Madlib. He mentioned that studying callous on-line feedback from individuals wishing that celebrities’ homes would burn down upset him. “You see that?” Chappelle mentioned. “That proper there? That’s why I hate poor individuals. Because they’ll’t see previous their very own ache.”
He referred to as the wildfires “the most costly pure catastrophe that’s ever occurred in United States historical past,” most likely as a result of “individuals in L.A. have good stuff.”
“I might burn 40,000 acres in Mississippi for like six or seven hundred {dollars},” he added.
Chappelle mentioned that Luigi Mangione, who was charged with homicide within the capturing demise of UnitedHealthcare’s chief govt in Manhattan, “did nearly plan like the proper crime” and that his solely mistake was forgetting “to shave his eyebrows.”
The comic famous that different nations had been serving to the United States to place out the Southern California fires. “Canada despatched planes that helped us out,” Chappelle mentioned. “Mexico despatched firefighters. And Trump was like, ‘be sure that they depart after they end.’”
Chappelle revisited a false declare the president-elect made in the course of the marketing campaign, that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been consuming their neighbors’ pets. Chappelle, who lives in Ohio, defined that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield had arrived on this nation legally and “saved lots of corporations as a result of they did jobs that the whites weren’t doing.”
“They had been busy doing different issues,” he added. “Heroin, sleeping on streets, you already know what it’s.”
After a riff about Sean Combs and Chappelle’s remark that he had by no means been invited to one in every of his “freak-off” events (“I mentioned, ‘Oh my God, I’m ugly. Boy, that was a troublesome solution to discover that out.”), he returned to the subject of U.S. presidents — particularly Trump and Jimmy Carter, who died in December.
Chappelle recounted how he had traveled to the Middle East after strolling off his Comedy Central sequence “Chappelle’s Show” on the identical time Carter was there to advertise his e book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”
When Carter was informed the Israeli authorities couldn’t shield him if he visited the Palestinian territories, Chappelle mentioned he was moved by images of “a former American president strolling with little to no safety whereas hundreds of Palestinians had been cheering him on.”
He added, “I don’t know if that’s a superb president, however that proper there, I’m certain, is a good man. It made me really feel very proud.”
Chappelle concluded his monologue with these ideas:
The presidency is not any place for petty individuals. Donald Trump, I do know you watch the present. Man, bear in mind, whether or not individuals voted for you or not, they’re all relying on you. Whether they such as you or not, they’re all relying on you. The entire world is relying on you. I imply this after I say this: Good luck. Please, do higher subsequent time. Please, all of us, do higher subsequent time. Do not overlook your humanity and please have empathy for displaced individuals, whether or not they’re within the Palisades or Palestine.
Cold open of the week
Yes, there have been sketches on “S.N.L.” this week, too, starting with a parody of an MSNBC roundtable that featured Sarah Sherman as Rachel Maddow being repeatedly interrupted by breaking information tales concerning the incoming Trump administration. (Among the satirical headlines: Trump wish to “Trade Connecticut for Italy”; and he’s sending Donald Trump Jr. to “Explore the Possibility of Purchasing the Emerald City.)
James Austin Johnson appeared in his recurring position as Trump, explaining that his inauguration could be held indoors as a result of there could be “too many individuals to suit exterior” and introducing Bowen Yang (taking part in the disgraced former Representative George Santos) as his new Secretary of Fact Checking. (Yang mourned Jimmy Carter as “an excellent affect on me, since he was my dad.”)
Weekend Update jokes of the week
Over on the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on Trump’s return to the presidency and Joe Biden’s imminent departure from the workplace.
Jost started:
Well, guys, it’s the daybreak of a brand new period. Donald Trump launched his official inaugural portrait, and the photograph is lit, I assume, by hell opening up. Trump is making an attempt to look so hard-core on this photograph, I’m stunned he didn’t add a parental advisory sticker and a do-rag. [His screen showed a mock-up of what that photo might look like.] And then Trump additionally launched the official portrait of JD Vance. [His screen showed a generic image of a blank profile.]
Che continued:
Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony has been moved contained in the Capitol constructing. Hey, similar to final time! [His screen showed an image of rioters breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.] President Biden delivered a farewell tackle to the nation on Wednesday after which triumphantly rode off into the pavement. [His screen showed a video of Biden falling over on a bicycle.]
Weekend Update desk visitor of the week
Michael Longfellow, showing on Weekend Update as himself, delivered a very well timed lament on TikTok, which went darkish solely hours earlier than this broadcast. His help for TikTok, Longfellow mentioned, was “the primary political opinion I’ve ever had.”
“So we’re simply banning issues as a result of they’re from China now?” Longfellow requested incredulously. “Well you already know who else was from China? That’s proper: Jesus Christ.” When Che knowledgeable him that Jesus was not from China, Longfellow replied, “I assumed he was Middle Eastern, however I noticed it on a TikTok.”
