Superstar comedian Dave Chappelle just hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time. Of course, his opening monologue was full of standout references to some of pop culture's most hot-button issues. In fact, he was the subject of a few himself. As a very controversial comedian, SNL writers wanted to boycott his show, but his team denied such claims.
During his monologue, Chappelle addressed a variety of topics. First, he talked about the massive backlash to Ye f.k.a. Kanye West's anti-Semitic comments. The D.C. comedian poked fun at Kanye's invincible attitude and unfiltered, disingenuous comments. Right at the start of the monologue, Chappelle let people know he wasn't playing around.
"'I denounce anti-Semitism in all its forms and I stand with my friends in the Jewish community.' And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time."
Despite the jokes, Chappelle also made it clear that he doesn't think Kanye is particularly crazy. Not doing too good? Maybe. But the stand-up and sketch veteran was smart to make a distinction between intrusive delusional thoughts and posting them in this climate.
"I've been to Hollywood, this is just what I saw. It's a lot of Jews, like a lot. But that doesn't mean anything, you know what I mean? There's a lot of Black people in Ferguson, Missouri, doesn't mean they run the place... You might go out to Hollywood, you might start connecting some kind of lines and maybe adopt the delusion that the Jews run show business. It's not a crazy thing to think. But it's a crazy thing to say out loud, in a climate like this."
Chappelle also brought up Kyrie Irving's recent public reckoning for similarly anti-Semitic rhetoric.
“Kanye got in so much trouble Kyrie got in trouble," Chappelle said. "...and the NBA told him he should apologize and he was slow to apologize. The list of demands to get back into their good graces got longer and longer and this is where I draw the line. I know the Jewish people have been through terrible things all over the world, but you can’t blame that on Black Americans.”
Chappelle notably caught heat for his Netflix special last year, where he made some scrutinized comments about the LGBTQIA+ community. While many people are generally critical of his behavior, his specific comments about the transgender community have been particularly condemned. Recently, Saturday Night Live hired their first non-binary cast member Molly Kearney and trans non-binary writer Celeste Yim.
The Chappelle's Show star also talked about former President Donald Trump, the midterm elections, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. You can check out Dave Chappelle's full SNL monologue below.
