Dave Chappelle began off Saturday Evening Reside‘s first episode of 2025 with a bang, addressing every part from the L.A. wildfires to Donald Trump‘s upcoming inauguration and the lengthy checklist of allegations towards Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Saturday marked Chappelle’s fourth time internet hosting, this time alongside musical visitor GloRilla. The comic has beforehand appeared in notable post-election episodes, together with his prior internet hosting stints happening in November 2016, 2020 and 2022; this time, he joined the present simply two days earlier than Trump’s second inauguration.
Strolling out on stage whereas smoking a cigarette, Chappelle advised the gang that SNL boss Lorne Michaels had requested him to host the primary episode after the 2024 election, however he had mentioned no as a result of “Issues are going good, I completed my Netflix deal, I’ve all this cash and stuff.” After Michaels pushed, Chappelle advised him to avoid wasting the date closest to Jan. 6. When the brand new date rolled round, the comic mentioned he nonetheless didn’t wish to host however lastly agreed as “I can eliminate all these previous Trump jokes and begin contemporary so you already know what, I’ll do it.”
“The second I mentioned sure, L.A. burst into flames,” Chappelle joked, noting it’s “method too quickly to make jokes a few disaster like that” to laughs from the gang, including this one “hits near house” as so many pals misplaced their properties.
“After which I am going on the web and I watch these hearth movies and I learn the feedback sections and everybody’s like, ‘Yeah it serves these celebrities proper, I hope their homes burn down,’” he mirrored. “And also you see that? That proper there, that’s why I hate poor folks, as a result of they’ll’t see previous their very own ache.” He additionally mused in regards to the principle that the fires have been began by arsonists, acknowledging L.A.’s excessive winds and dry hills however “when you have been a rational considering individual, it’s a must to at the least contemplate the idea that God hates these folks. Sodomites. And that’s pure as a result of West Hollywood was unscathed, as a result of how will you burn what was already flaming?”
Chappelle additionally touched on the Luigi Mangione case and Trump saying immigrants have been consuming canines and cats in Ohio — the place he lives — earlier than diving right into a dialog about Diddy’s arrest.
“I’ve been in lots of hassle in my day however this man Puffy, oh buddy, this man is in an infinite quantity of hassle; I don’t assume I’ve ever seen something like this,” he mentioned, whereas explaining that his pals have requested if he knew something about Diddy’s freak-off events. “They’d be like, ‘Nicely how have been all these folks you already know on the freak-off and also you have been the one one who wasn’t on the freak-off?’ And I considered it for a minute and I mentioned oh my God — I’m ugly. That was a tricky option to discover that out. Are you able to think about when you have been me studying the newspaper and came upon everybody in Hollywood had an orgy behind your again? None of y’all referred to as me?”
Chappelle joked that he does, nonetheless, “have snitch vitality. I seem like I’ll inform,” and added that with Diddy being 55 and “you’ve bought one thousand bottles of child oil in the home, can’t cease gained’t cease. You’ve dedicated to the approach to life.”
He then turned to politics, reflecting on Jimmy Carter’s current demise and the way moved he was by Carter as soon as visiting Palestine with little safety. “After I noticed that image, it introduced tears to my eyes. I mentioned I don’t know if that’s a superb president, however that proper there, I’m positive, is a good man. It made me really feel very proud.”
“The presidency isn’t any place for petty folks. Donald Trump, I do know you watch the present — man, bear in mind, whether or not folks voted for you or not, they’re all relying on you,” he continued. “Whether or not they such as you or not, they’re all relying on you. The entire world is relying on you. And I imply this after I say this: good luck. Please do higher subsequent time. Please all of us, do higher subsequent time. Don’t forget your humanity and please have empathy for displaced folks, whether or not they’re within the Palisades or Palestine.”
To proceed SNL‘s historic fiftieth season — which might be celebrated with a three-hour primetime particular set for Feb. 16 — Timothée Chalamet will function each host and musical visitor on the Jan. 25 present, presumably performing Bob Dylan covers within the wake of his efficiency because the music legend in A Full Unknown.