When it was announced that Dave Chappelle would host Saturday Night Live for the first time ever, and a Tribe Called Quest would be his musical guests, immediate excitement mounted. For the first time in close to a decade, we’d get to see Chappelle on a television stage telling jokes. For fans of Chappelle, and comedy in general, it was a warm welcome and many anticipated what would come, given that the episode was the first following the 2016 presidential election.
Just a week ago, you could almost expect Donald Trump jokes aplenty and high praise for Hillary Clinton in what was supposed to be a landslide victory for Clinton. The tables turned quickly and following Trump’s victory over Clinton you could safely assume the show planning did a complete 180.
Outside of the great jokes from the comedic legend, there were also some fantastic performances from A Tribe Called Quest. They performed some music off their new album “We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service”. They had a wonderful tribute to their late group member Phife Dawg and also were joined on stage by some old friends.
Check out some of the highlights below of Chappelle’s SNL hosting debut.
Here’s Chappelle opening up on the subject of the week, the 2016 presidential election. He told a bunch of great jokes in his classic Dave Chapelle style but at the end, he hit home and delivered a powerful message.
He followed that up with a skit that placed him at an election party. The characters went through the night and watched as the election results rolled in and a special guest also managed to show up.
And quite possibly the best skit of the show, if not the entire season so far, brought back some old Chappelle characters but also had Dave play a new one. In a hilarious but notable skit, Chappelle had the opportunity to kill off some of the memorable characters he portrayed earlier in his career.
On the hit Comedy Central program, ‘Chapelle’s Show’, Dave played a ton of great personas. Dave took to the SNL stage to portray himself as the new villain in ‘The Walking Dead’, Negan, and one of his characters just had to die.
Chappelle’s message with this SNL skit might be a hint he’s done with that ‘Chappelle’s Show’ era and he’s moving on to better things. This could be the start of something new in his career but who knows with Dave.
He delivered a message on more than one occasion on Saturday night. With the country torn apart right now after the results of the presidential election, Chappelle tried to reinforce one message. The American people have to give something new a chance, even if it isn’t what a majority of us wanted.
You can watch more skits from the episode on Saturday Night Live’s YouTube Channel or watch the full episode here.
