Dave Chappelle made his return to television hosting SNL for the very first time Saturday night, on the show’s first postelection episode. After a solemn cold open that saw Kate McKinnon singing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in full Hillary Clinton garb, Chappelle took the mike for a 10-minute monologue on our newly elected president—and thank goodness he did, because after the events of last week, we really needed a laugh. Be warned, the monologue contains some strong language:
Chappelle dove right in, talking about everything from Trump (“It seemed like Hillary was doing well in the polls and yet—I know the whites”) to what it’s like to be both rich and black. But he was at his funniest while discussing, of all things, Black Lives Matter:
You can’t even go to the goddamn zoo without seeing a shooting out there. They shot a gorilla at my local zoo. And the Cincinnati Police said ‘Shooting that gorilla was the toughest decision this department has ever had to make.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re about to see a lot of niggas in gorilla costumes in Cincinnati.’
And though Chappelle closed the monologue on a serious note, asking Trump to give disenfranchised minorities the same chance they’re expected to give him, it wasn’t the end of the laughs: He got utterly silly later on in the evening with a sketch that touched on the election while spoofing that devastating Walking Dead scene—and featuring some faces you just might recognize from Chappelle’s Show.
