Amidst controversy, Dave Chappelle hosts another post-election SNL
Maybe the strongest of the season, this episode was provocative and thought-provoking
TV Reviews Dave Chappelle
This week marked comedian Dave Chappelle’s third time
hosting a post-election Saturday Night
Live following his stings after the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. A
lot has happened since then. The announcement of Chappelle as host created a
divisive response stemming from transphobic remarks he made during his controversial
special The Closer on Netflix, as
explored here. In addition, Chappelle
found himself as a victim when he was attacked on stage at a Netflix event at
the Hollywood Bowl. Eyes have been closely watching SNL this week with talk of writers boycotting the episode and
suggestions that some cast members were upset by Chappelle’s participation in
the franchise. What unfolded this week will likely entrench the gulf between Chappelle’s
supporters and detractors. As a host, Chappelle appeared confident and
unrepentant producing a polemic SNL episode
that will get people talking, which may have been Lorne Michaels’ plan all
along.
Best sketch of the
night
It was sort of hard to narrow this down to one. Many of the sketches
of the night revolved around white discomfort, confusion, and ignorance
interacting with Black culture as seen in “P.M. in the Afternoon,” “Barber Shop Talk,” and “Heaven Scene.” It was at its most
succinct in the first sketch which juxtaposed the cheery landscape of morning television
with Black trauma. The way that the correspondents boorishly use the term “Potato
Hole” without a correct understanding and their dismay when they are enlightened
by Chappelle’s musician made for a potent sketch about misappropriation. “Barber
Shop Talk” reversed the racial dynamic of the first sketch to explore the disconnect
between the white and Black perspectives with various touchy issues. “Black Heaven”
furthered the theme by placing Mikey Day in a role supposedly meant for Chappelle,
while Chappelle reveled in Day’s discomfort.
Both the best and
worst of the night
Chappelle was given a sprawling fifteen minutes for his monologue
which covered topics such as Kanye West, Trump, the war in Ukraine, and free
speech. His relaxed and fluid delivery was a reminder of what a gifted comedic communicator
Chapelle can be. It also served as a reminder of why it is so important how he
expresses his thoughts. He opened the monologue by saying he wanted to read a statement.
It would not be a leap to think he may address the transphobic remarks he had
made in his last comedy special. In fact, The
Closer actually begins with an apology to the city of Detroit. However, it
leads to an examination of Kanye West and his recent anti-Semitic remarks. He
remarked that one should never put “the” before “Jews,” but did not have the
self-awareness, or inclination to acknowledge that he should not have used “the”
before “transgenders,” or the term “transgenders” at all in The Closer. It was somewhat uncomfortable
parsing some of his thoughts on anti-Semitism, mental illness, and how race
impacts such issues. He gave an astute analysis of Trump as an “honest liar”
and touched on how society comes down harsher on Black people for mistakes. At
the same time, much of the monologue had a ring of trolling or mocking of those
who have challenged Chappelle for his words. He lamented that “it shouldn’t be
this scary to talk,” which could be read a myriad of ways. He could be
referring to his attacker, it could be about cancel culture, and it could be
about the lack of intelligent discourse surrounding controversial issues. It
will surely have fans and critics, but it succeeds in getting people to talk
and think.
Most current sketch
of the night
This was one of the season’s best Cold Opens because of its
immediacy. As elections drag on well beyond Tuesdays, the sketch felt fresh
with the uncertainty of American democracy at this moment. It revolved around
the Red Wave, or lack thereof, from this week’s midterm elections. It was underlined by Kari Lake’s shifting perspective on
election integrity contingent on whether she is leading or not in her race in
Arizona. It also touched on tonight’s revelation that the Democratic party will
retain control of the senate while Trump is at his black-sheep daughter Tiffany’s
wedding. Likewise, it touched on the conservative media’s turn against Trump in
favor of Florida’s Ron DeSantis. Anchored with James Austin Johnsons Trump
impression and Cecily Strong’s epic Kari Lake impersonation, it was a cold open
that felt fresh and immediate.
Best throwback sketch
of the night
While one of the least thought-provoking sketches of the
night, “House of the Dragon” was one of the funniest. Building off the hoopla
surrounding the response by some to the inclusion of Black figures in the fantasy
program, Chappelle took us back to simpler times by including past beloved characters
from The Chappelle Show, such as
Player Haters, Tyrone, and Rick James. The joke that Ice T’s character looked
like E.T. when they dressed him up for Halloween was perfect. It is also worth
applauding the production value that SNL invests
in these pre-taped segments.
MVP of the Night
Love him or hate him, Chappelle was surely the MVP of the
night. This isn’t an endorsement of any of his views, but rather an acknowledgment
that his fingerprints were all over this episode. It felt like Chappelle’s
vision of SNL. Defiantly smoking in
his promo pictures and on set, Chappelle appeared confident and resolute in his
comedy. The flip side of this was the sense that his point of view can give a
false sense of a monolithic Black perspective, such as “Barber Shop Talk,” and
some of his points during his monologue. This was certainly one of the most
provocative episodes and arguably the best episode of the season. He made SNL feel like it was Chapelle’s show.
Stray observations
- I learned that Potato Hole is also a website to help find and support Black-owned businesses. I wonder how much traffic they might get after this episode.
- Maybe it was because of the lengthy monologue but the sketches felt sort of short. It made them stronger and snappier.
- “Sarah News” seemed to have divided social media. It was at times annoying and at others hilarious. I think it should come back in the future.
- I thought you couldn’t really smoke on network television like that anymore. I also read that maybe Chappelle wasn’t censored during the monologue, but I’m not sure the protocol since I was watching on Peacock.
- While none of the cast was completely M.I.A. I noticed that Bowen Yang, Molly Kearney, and Sarah Sherman were notably absent from the end of the show send off when the cast normally joins the host and musical guests for goodbyes.
- It felt like a particularly strong “Weekend Update.” Maybe it was a midterm bump.
- Marcello Hernandez is really distinguishing himself quickly.
- I really didn’t feel like there was a ‘worst’ sketch of the night.
- Could not be more excited for Keke Palmer to be the next host on December 3.
354 Comments
Maybe Lorne hasn’t booked The SPR3 yet ‘cuz he is unaware that they would be willing be both the musical act AND host!
Sadly we all know about SPR3’s long history of transphobia, antisemitism, ableism, reverse racism,antidisestablishmentarianism and their support of the show Yellowstone. Honestly the fact that you still post regularly is proof cancel culture doesn’t work.
All it has proven to me is that the “flag spam” function does nothing.
Good sir, you surely have The SPR3 confused with another act!
Oh come on. We all know SPR3 stands for Supreme Prime Race White(a 3 is secret racist code for white because it’s a w on its side). And their first album cover had a Confederate Flag on it. Sure they said it was about their “culture” but we all know the truth. Plus their drummer is a literal clone of Hitler
Yep. You are sadly mistaken. SPR3 stands for “Samuel Powers Rhythm 3″ ! Gee whiz!
Holy shit, you are either a special kind of stupid or the worst troll ever.
I…huh?
Comedian priorities:“Focus on politics (in a historic midterm week)? Naw.Focus on my own previous controversies? Nope.Um, you say one of my most famous friends just had an epic racist meltdown? Butt-covering time: you KNOW I’ll focus on that!!”:D 😀 😀
Oh good, he managed to be casually antisemitic while decrying antisemitism.
He said nothing disparaging about the Jewish people. He simply said what the vast majority of Americans already know but are afraid to say out loud: You’re allowed to make observations about every demographic in this country, except one. Pointing out a demographic coincidence that there is a disproportionate representation of one group in a specific industry will be met with swift condemnation and accusations of antisemitism. I can point out that a disproportionate number of people of Indian ancestry manage donut shops without being hateful or labeled an India-phobe. Because it’s a simple demographic fact, and it’s not a bad thing. Every immigrant group brings their relatives over to join them in a business and they expand such businesses together. That’s what my family did when they came here. It’s a great thing about America. But to say out loud that a disproportionate number of Jewish people (relative to the population in America) happen to sit in the executive suites of our news and entertainment corporations will be met with swift condemnation and repercussions, even though it’s obviously true. Doesn’t seem fair. Dave’s complaint wasn’t about that demographic statistic. His complaint was that you’re not allowed to say it out loud. And here you are, calling him an antisemite for doing so. You literally just proved his point.
The issue is that the claim Jewish people are in charge of Hollywood/banks/governments/the world/space lasers all comes from the same antisemitic root. It’s the same thing antisemites have said for two thousand years, usually right before they show up with torches. You can say “it’s demographics” as loudly as you like, but you’re echoing the same words people have used for centuries, and within living memory, as their excuse for purges and genocide. It’s not even a dogwhistle. It’s repeating antisemitic propaganda word for word out loud.
Governments, I’ll grant you, but Jews really did build Hollywood and run most studios:https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-dec-19-oe-stein19-story.htmlSince that’s paywalled:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2008/dec/23/jews-hollywood-filmOf course, Kanye West is mostly a musician rather than an actor and the business dropping him, as Chapelle pointed out in that first clip, was founded by Nazis.
Kanye is a ”musician” in the loosest possible sense. He’s as much of a samurai or astronaut as he is a musician.
But let someone utter “13/50” and that’s different lol
Disprove anything he said in that monologue and your point will be valid.
It’s trivial to disprove most of what he said. The rest of us don’t have to bend to your bigotry.
Trying to use logic against his critics isnt going to work, not in here.
You’re missing the final and most vital part of that process leading to pitchforks and torches: deciding that the demographics are somehow harmful and something needs done about it. That’s where the leap into antisemitism actually happens.
I thought it was Southeast Asians running donut shops, though perhaps that’s a SoCal specific thing (not that I’m from there).
Area Man Complains He Can’t Get Away With Being Mean To The Jews
Saying Jews are disproportionately represented in Hollywood/media is VERY DIFFERENT from saying Jews run those industries. If you say “Detroit is too black” you’re not making a simple demographic statement about who lives in Detroit. You’re making a statement about the character and quality of Detroit. What Chappelle was soing was implying that the Jews who “run Hollywood” make decision based on some quality of Jewishness, that they’re dangerous to outsiders. Imagine a white hip hop artist blaming black people for failing in the music industry and you see how dumb and racist it sounds.
I would say that ityrhe mind if jokes a Jewish comedian could get away with but only Jewish comedians. In the same way only black people can get away with certain jokes. Something SNL points out all the time, including in the episode. I spent most of the monologue extremely uncomfortable completely unsure where the bit was going and not at all confident that Chappel was going to avoid saying something really bad.
Well hey at least he didn’t say anything direct and obvious about trans people. He just merely implied it heavily when talking about things you can’t say and how that’s bad. Oh Dave…
There was a component to his bit that was almost sympathetic towards Kanye in that the reaction to his comments was way too much and came from a place of somebody who is still in a snit about people trying to “cancel” him. Comedians who’s comedy comes from a place of being annoyed that somebody called them out is never a good look.
Yeah he was too sympathic to Kanye and especially Kyrie. It reminded me of Lebron recently saying let him play. No, no this isn’t an innocent slip up, those two hold very hateful beliefs and are supremely wealthy, they do not need help or sympathy.
I also can’t help but wonder if the Kanye episode of Lebron’s show was pulled at least in part because maybe, possibly, there weren’t quite the stern condemnations of Kanye’s remarks that Lebron would want us to think there were.
His point was that Jews are the one protected group where you’re not allowed to point out obvious realities. I don’t see the evidence for that; in fact, a number of Jewish people (myself being one of them) seem to feel that the opposite is often true in the sense that nominally progressive people don’t seem to get as bothered by antisemitism as they do by bigotry against other groups (“Jews don’t count” etc.). Frankly, if Chappelle had focused on transgender people in that monologue to the extent he focused on Jews, would he have even been allowed to do that or would someone from the show have intervened? Also how is Kanye West’s “go defcon 3 on the jews” pointing out something that everyone secretly agrees is true but can’t say?
Hilariously, what Kanye actually said was “deathcon 3″ which is even dumber.
Well, I’m sure HE secretly agrees, he’s a practicing Muslim.
“He simply said what the vast majority of Americans already know but are afraid to say out loud”Boy, does that sound like the opening to an anti-semitic rant!
Using antisemitism to prove your point isn’t helping. You and Dave are similarly lost on this.
This is literally nazi propaganda, everyone who starred this is openly supporting nazi propaganda. The only good nazi is a dead one. You are scum.
Good god. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Context and intent matter. He’s a comedian who told jokes. Welcome to standup comedy.
More than casually and not for the first time. But I eagerly await the fans who will come tell me (Jewish) why it either wasn’t offensive or why it’s ok for Chappelle to do it.
Either you get his humor or you don’t. You don’t, so it’s pointless trying to explain.
Bullsh*t. There’s plenty of times I’ve found Chappelle funny. I didn’t find this funny. It’s not one or the other.
What what a middle class soccer mom might say
It’s kind of amusing, in a depressing way, how eager people are to laugh at others…. until they perceive they are the ones being laughed at, and then something flips in the brain and suddenly its horrible to laugh at others. Until they think they’re not being laughed at anymore. Then it’s okay again.
Same here.
No I GET his humour and have since like… 1997. Massive fan. But he been basically a different person since he returned from his “hiatus”. Now he’s a rich AF grumpy old ten pack a day smokers voice who stopped caring cause why should he? Like, me as a mixed race (not black) guy found so much to relate to with his comedy even though I was born in a tiny village in a small Canadian town. Now? I just see another elite MF who doesn’t get it. And look, i GET why he doesn;t get it. But I don;t GET all these B-holes coming in here defending him, like he gives a shit?
Yeah, this is what’s so frustrating. He’s still Dave Chappelle, one of the funniest people on the planet. Potato Hole is a solid sketch that pillories people making uninformed assumptions about injustices they can’t and won’t even really try to comprehend.
So it’s really disappointing to find out that’s mostly bullshit, and he’s not really interested in justice or nuance at all. He’s against the oppression of black people because he’s black and it disadvantages him personally. Wildly ignorant assumptions about other groups of people are apparently fine. He’s a more talented Ben Shapiro, who, unsurprisingly, was really excited for this episode.
Don’t get his humor? What? First, there has to be some. Second…what? You think it is just that easy to wave off his obvious anti-Semitism.Could you, with your big brain, explain to us “lots of Jews in Hollywood”? That is so fresh and new. I just cannot “get it”.
You’re saying that to a jewish person………..! Try saying “You either find racism funny or you don’t, you don’t get it” to a Black person.
This is the dumbest fucking take, typical of people who don’t actually understand the mechanics of comedy. Chappelle is not Tim & Eric – his comedy isn’t esoteric or deep. You either take pleasure in cruelty or not – there’s nothing here to “get.”
Yeah! The target audience “gets” anti-Semitism, so fuck off if you don’t think it’s funny!
It was offensive, in the right way. The line ‘when it’s black it’s a gang, and when it’s italians, it’s the mob, and when it’s jews, it’s a coincidence’ is brilliant in it’s structure. That’s not saying you have to agree OR be offended. But he couches it in counterexamples that puts the critic in the position of defending the stereotyping of others in criticizing the stereotyping of the jewish community. Further he doesn’t actually accuse anyone of anything except hypocrisy by inference.Most of the offense taken is from the unsaid filled in by the offended recipient.
Right. Jews. Jews were offended that Chappelle went to the old “Jews control the media” well.
The line ‘when it’s black it’s a gang, and when it’s italians, it’s the mob, and when it’s jews, it’s a coincidence’ is brilliant in it’s structure.
You know what? I’ll give him that. It’s well-constructed.That said, it relies on an assumption Chappelle has been making a lot lately, which is “people think it’s okay to stereotype / mock black people, but not [other minority group], which is hypocritical so I’ll mock that group for balance.” Which is a pretty shitty assumption for a whole number of reasons, not the least of which is no shit he experiences more anti-black bigotry than he does transphobia or antisemitism, he’s black but isn’t trans or Jewish.
Most of the offense taken is from the unsaid filled in by the offended recipient.He’s a master of playing I’m Not Touching You but people have a way of figuring that game out pretty fast anyway.
Why did he have to use Jews as his example?
So he could defend Kanye, and by extension Black antisemitism, while not seeming to defend Kanye…?
Because that’s the one white people get all up in arms about.He used the other’s as examples, he used Jewish people as the one you can’t say anything about.
And it’s called a Tu Quoque logical fallacy nested inside false equivalence fallacies.Nobody is forced to defend shit when it’s not a logical or honest example but rather one posed bath faith. I guess if you think “Is your mom ugly or just stupid” is a clever rhetorical trap then idiotic bad faith like Chapelle’s might be impressive.The fact is there ARE black criminal gangs but they are NOT the majority of black people. There is Italian organized crime but they are NOT the majority of Italian people. And nobody defending Judaism against slurs made the claim to Chappelle or Kanye that either of those other tired tropes were a counter factual to antisemitism.Further there is not a Jewish cabal or banking conspiracy or whatever the fuck it is Chappelle and Kanye think keeping black people or anyone else down. Rather this tired myth imposed on a religious minority lead to god damned genocide. So the comparisons are idiotic.
Wow, just looked at the comment below. You didn’t have to wait long, did you?
Was was okay at least as okay as if George Carlin had said them. He was calling out hypocrisy and I am neither black or Jewish
So it’s offensive for him to say there are a lot of Jewish people working in Hollywood? Did you watch his monologue or just read a hot take?
Watched it. Live. So I didn’t get my impressions from anyone else.
I’m glad you did. Many don’t. But you know when a comedian is on stage they are playing a part to craft the best joke. For instance he doesn’t really believe Ukraine was Home Aloning that shit. He said there are a lot of Jewish people in Hollywood, a stereotype for sure. Kind of like saying there are a lot of Indian doctors.
And yet… a Jewish person (Lorne Michaels) approved it, funded it, and filmed it for live television. We gonna talk about South Park’s Matt Stone next?
Other than Jewish people run Hollywood, an ancient observation that’s not really an overreach, wasn’t he mostly ripping Kanye for being so stupid? I didn’t hear any insults. I mostly just felt like “okay, you’ve covered this. Let’s move on.”
He was mostly ripping Kanye for being dumb enough to say the quiet part out loud.
Go watch Hannah Gatsby and pull the board out of your ass.
“It was somewhat uncomfortable parsing some of his thoughts on anti-Semitism, mental illness, and how race impacts such issues” is one way to put it.
A cowardly way, but still a way, I guess.
That that is all you got from it then I think you missed the point entirely
With the way they act can you blame him?
It’s okay though, Trae wants you to know it was “thought provoking!”
Punching up is always funny. Which is what Chapelle did here. Take your All Lives Matter BS somewhere else.
Institutional racism and institutional antisemitism are both bad, as are the hurtful comments I have made about hamsters in the past. We can all be better if we are willing to do the work.
You’re SOOOOOO BRAVE
Dave Chappelle was just tone-policing Ye’s antisemitism while reinforcing his beliefs with a “but we all kind of agree with him, right?” Even several comments in this thread reflect that all Dave Chappelle did was reinforce bigots and teach them to be more polite about being bigots.1% of millionaires on the entire planet are Jewish, 60% are Christian, but there’s somehow people who believe in a vast global conspiracy of Jewish elites to control power.When people debunked Ye’s “white board of Jewish elites” by pointing out that he had a bunch of people who were neither ethnically nor religiously Jewish and he just really had a big “big board of white Christian elites,” quite a few socially progressive people were frustrated at the facts being confronted and instead wanted all of the focus on his “tone.”But that’s how antisemitic conspiracies grow. “Everybody just knows” is assumed and anyone not discussing it is evidence of the conspiracy. This is why Dave Chappelle detoured into into arguing Ye’s point on the merits while condemning his “tone.”Saying, “When they’re Italians it’s called the Mafia, when it’s black people it’s called gangs, when it’s Jewish people it’s a coincidence” ignores that Jewish criminals aren’t being hidden from the news, there are Jewish organized crime syndicates that are notorious in pop culture, and large groups of black and Italian folks working together aren’t by default considered gangs either.And worse. The Jewish scapegoat issue is even more damning in how it replaces the groups who actually hold and wield power with a secretive minority. The sectors that Ye and Dave say are “Jewish” — music and film and television — are actually controlled by Christians, specifically white Christians. Almost every cable network, almost every streaming network, the entire broadcast radio landscape, our newspapers, journalism in general, colleges, the guys who own our college debt, the guys who own our banks, our police, our military, the guys who sell guns to the police and military, the prisons we throw people into, the guys who own the mines and forests that produce the material for those guns and military, our meat, our vegetables, our legal system, our politics. All of this is overwhelmingly white and all of this is overwhelmingly Christian. And Christians also gather in groups, have social clubs, share world views, have specific goals, and they go ahead and do all of it out in broad daylight while everyone is watching.
So when someone says, “Everybody just knows,” all I hear is, “this system very obviously built around white people and Christians isn’t flawless in its white Christian supremacy, so you have to question everyone within this system — who is not obviously building and benefiting from this system in literally the most obvious ways.”And I’m sorry, but that’s still just more antisemitism. Folks have just found a nice polite way to disguise it in such a way that liberals can be completely useless when combating it.Just like racism.Tone is definitely a problem, but the foundational mythologies that liberals, moderates, and conservatives build in order to ground their ethnocentric world views is also the same damn problem.Just think about how much easier and less productive it is to say, “Black people are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system because of slavery and social insecurity” than it is to explain “Black people are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system because black people are overpoliced compared to white people, are more likely to be arrested for the same crimes, are more likely to be tried as adults for the same crimes at the same age, face longer prison sentences and harsher punishments for the same crimes, almost all crime is organized crime, organized crime affiliation scales with poverty rates, most people incarcerated have never actually been convicted of a crime at all but are awaiting sentencing while on bail, which is also driven by economic deprivation, which also further causes economic deprivation as people lose their jobs sitting in jails for years awaiting trials while they’re still technically innocent, white people currently (at this second) overwhelmingly benefit from an economic system that hires white high school dropouts regularly over black college graduates, fires non-white candidates before white candidates first regardless of race, gives poor white public schools ~15% more state and federal funding than equally poor black public schools, deprives non-white schools of advanced classes compared to the students who qualify, is more likely to downtrack non-white students who perform the same as white students, devalues black homes when sold, and rewards with even more wealth those who have wealth to invest in the first place, leading to median white households having 1000% the wealth of median black households and 1/3rd the poverty rates.”It is really easy for bigots to contest the first statement, it is easier for nice, polite people benefiting from these systems to feel good that they said absolutely nothing of value with the first statement, but the second statement, the one that challenges the unexplored world views of people who also just wish everyone would be nicer while not wanting to confront their own toxicity has some value. It’s not about bigots being nice, it’s about bigots using their bigotry to arrive at and reinforce the arguments for their bigotry as a kind of cold pragmatic realism.Dave didn’t do anything at all but give people on the fence over their own unspoken bigotry a reason to feel comfortable with Ye’s statements by positioning both of themselves as “truth tellers” while outright lying.
Damn… this is a very good post. no lies detected
There’s no Thanksgiving episode?That’s a bit of a letdown after tonight’s very funny show.
Eh, I won’t miss a gross thing being done with a turkey carcass to sacrifice a Thanksgiving themed ep.
Don’t kink shame me
When was it funny? After the credits? Because that’s when I stopped watching.
SOOOOOO BRAVE
We got to hear about Sarah’s turkey waddle vagina. That WAS the Thanksgiving show!
It was a glorious episode, a masterclass in exposing idiocy and hypocrisy from multiple angles. The “black heaven” skit was the smartest bit I’ve seen on SNL in many, many years.Dave hit it out of the park.
It was an OK episode, and Dave was good in the sketches. The monologue was hit and miss though, certainly no masterclass. The whole section with ‘The Jews’ wasn’t offensive but it was not funny. It perked up considerably when he moved to Herschel Walker and Trump.
The bit about Ukraine was a bit odd. Yes its great that they are winning and many did have doubts at first but… the Ukrainian military day 1 was still heavily supplied with western arms and they had been well trained for this since 2014. They weren’t backwards hicks just setting up traps left and right. I get its for comedy but having a friend who’s a nurse in the thick of it has made me learn a lot more about that nation and its anything but dumb.
As a Ukrainian I really appreciated the small bit he did about us. I thought it was funny, kind and not that inaccurate really. At the beginning of the invasion we had Javelins and British NLAWs, which are small anti-tank missiles you carry over your shoulder, and that’s about it. The rest of our equipment was old and in pitiful quantities regarding the scale of the attack. In Kyiv the Territorial Defence had to refuse most of the volunteers because they didn’t have enough rifles or guns. Hence all the videos of grannies preparing Molotov’s cocktails. There was a feeling that had russians been able to break through, the whole city would rise with basically kitchenware in their hands. The recent successes are applied to some much more sophisticated weapons and warfare, but it all came later. The first weeks were a bit like he said.We are definitely not dumb, we can agree on that. I don’t really think a nation can be dumb, but certainly not us. Cheers!
Cheers indeed. Its a lovely country, my friends from Lviv and when she’s not being moved around to places like Odessa or villages in the Kherson Oblast I can tell its a beautiful place.
We gave Afghanistan state of the art weapons.
The Ukrainian bit isn’t odd. Despite everything you mentioned, Russia is still the bigger country with the fearsome military as Kiev was expected to fall in less than a few days. I think it was a great reminder to Americans, especially those on the right and left that want to cut off the Ukrainians and force them to accept Putin’s peace terms what’s going on and at stake.
Yes but he said its like the US losing at invading Colorado. Ukraine is the second largest nation in Europe, its more akin to the US invading Mexico and losing. Its one of those wars where in retrospect years down the road its going to be clearly not as one sided a war as some thought then in February and some still think now.
No, the analogy is apt. You seem to be forgetting that Russia is the largest country in the world with almost a 100 million more people than Ukraine and 100 times it’s size and has nuclear weapons that they could use if they wanted to. Zelensky did have to remind everyone this weekend that the war is not even close to being over and Russia can still win it if Putin really decides to take the gloves off.
You can’t draft every single person in Russia. It took months for any draft to be put into place and it was highly unpopular. You also can’t commit the entire military when you have a country big enough to be in two continents. Nuclear arms is the only bargaining chip Russia has and its all bluster. They already are toning down the rhetoric, they’d sooner use chemical weapons before nukes and those haven’t appeared. The war won’t end tomorrow or the day after but it will and I feel one of the most important takeaways already is, people assumed too much of Russia and too little of Ukraine.
They don’t need to draft everyone, just enough to overwhelm the Ukrainian defenses which they are still very well in position to do. They’re still well in position to do so to use their nukes and chemical weapons if things get that bad and desperate for Putin.I just don’t get why you’re stubbornly insistant in not recognizing that this was one of the most one sided matchups in history. That if it weren’t for western aid, intelligence, and weapons, which btw Ukrainians are still sore that what we’ve been sending and doing for them is still not enough, they would’ve lost and that the moment we stop sending that aid, they’re pretty much doomed. I see that a Ukrainian told you as much in another comment.
Because its not as one sided. This isn’t Britain winning at Rorkes Drift. Its closer to the Russo Japanese War if you focus on just the land conflict and not the terribly one sided naval aspect. I’d hardly call it even at the start of the conflict but with enough hindsight its clear from the very start Russia kneecapped themselves by never officially declaring war and assuming this would be like Crimea in 2014. There’s a fantastic breakdown of every aspect of the war from an Australian military analysis called Perun on YouTube that has a similar outlook on the conflict. Russian defeat wasn’t assured in the beginning, but victory was similarly not a done deal.
It’s not Roakes Drift or the Russo Japanese war as a Russian victory was a done deal. Theres a reason why the US government offered the Zelensky government to leave the country. NATO estimated the whole Ukrainian army and goverment to completley collapse in 72 hours from Russian invasion.Jesus dude, do you have to be so internet about this, you can’t stand to be corrected even slightly and are seriously referring to YouTube videos when there are tons of articles and analysis about this?
Yes people assumed Kyiv would fall including the Pentagon. The assumption was quite flawed. Many people gave Russia too much credit. Also I’m gonna just leave this here, this isn’t rando videos its PowerPoint analysis. https://youtube.com/channel/UCC3ehuUksTyQ7bbjGntmx3Q
Yeah dude, try reading real analysis from experts in the field instead of crap from YouTube:https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/06/10/is-time-on-ukraines-side/
https://news.mit.edu/2022/starr-russia-ukraine-1011https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/russia-crisis-military-assessment-how-ukraine-can-take-the-fight-to-russia/
Last thing I’ll say, I keep up to date with the same sources as you. The guy I posted has been quoted by the Kyiv Independent and has done an interview with US military generals, its not Smosh or Pewdiepie nonsense. But I’ll leave this on a positive note, hey we both want Ukraine to succeed. Kherson being liberated was pretty good all things considered, hopefully within a years time this will all be well and over, and my poor Lviv based friend can go back to the UK and be miserable and have a 30 percent less chance of having to dodge missiles.
It doesn’t hurt to say “I was wrong, I stand corrected.” You wont lose your pride and sense of honor being slightly wrong on the internet. Just saying….
No its not that. Its just noticing where just basically at an impass in the same way Bakmut is an impass and frankly whether we are giving Russia too much credit or not is of minor importance and is perhaps more relevant when the conflict is over, which it is not unfortunately. The more important part we agree on is that military support has been extensive and that’s good, I hope it stays the way it currently is, for at the current trajectory, an overall Ukrainian victory is absolutely possible.
Yes it is that. No one is at an impass or giving Russia any credit. Its just basic, objective, facts. Russia being the larger, more populated, and more armed country was supposed to easily conquer Ukraine; so much so that they went in unprepared and unorganized while NATO and the US were preparing for a total Ukrainian loss and/or surrender. That didn’t happen much to everyone’s surprise including Putin’s. That was the point of this SNL skit. That the Ukrainians continue to defy expectations and they need our support.
I do like having a long conversation about Ukraine after watching SNL. I expected it to mostly be about transphobia. I do greatly enjoy this over that alternative choice.
On this, I totally agree 100%. I’d rather be talking about Ukraine than to be giving Dave Chapelle more attention he does not need or deserve. He already has his toxic weirdo fanboys and media doing that for him.
Good discussion with you and have a good one!
Same to you good sir! Best wishes.
I’m so glad that ended well!
And by continuing to repeatedly insist you are right makes you a jerk troll. Let your argument stand, then leave.
I think it’s fair to say we’re also learning that Russia’s military isn’t anywhere near as capable as everyone believed. The real disaster for Putin isn’t that he doesn’t get to just land grab part of Ukraine. It’s that the rest of the world now looks at Russia much differently than it did 12 months ago. You’ll notice China continues to become less enamored of partnering up with Putin. “A gas station with nukes” has never been a more apt description than it is today.
Yeah, on one side you had young men breaking each others’ legs with sledgehammers so they wouldn’t be deployed, and on the other you had volunteers being turned away until they could round up enough weapons. Russia can keep drafting but it will be sending over young, untrained soldiers who actively do not want to be there and will either be overmatched or surrender at the first opportunity.
Largest country by land mass only. Russia’s GDP is smaller than Italy or Texas. Its economy is an anemic and inflexible. Its giant population is poor, unhealthy, and declining. 140 million citizens doesn’t mean they can raise and unleash a massive army. Even after 700,000 able bodied men fled the country, they can’t equip the remainder they managed to mobilize. Their chain of command is ineffective and their equipment mostly in disrepair.Russia’s “military prowess” has been 1) having nukes and 2) unprovoked invasions of much smaller countries. Ukraine’s huge population only had to make a serious effort at competent training, tactics, and leadership to punch way above their weight. And the Ukrainians have done exactly that since they’re fighting for existence.
Except that they did raise and unleash a massive army. 2-3 million active and reserve, meanwhile Ukraine only had 200k at the start of the invasion.
I’m not really sure what point you’re jumping in to make here. No one here is saying that Russia is losing, but that Ukraine surprised everyone by doing so well against a much much larger and supposedly better military. Or that they are still in position to defeat Ukraine and that things aren’t close to being over.
Exactly. I was gonna say, Canada is larger than the US, as well, by a fair amount, if we’re talking land mass. I would hate to be involved in a war against them.
I agree US vs Colorado wasn’t a great analogy… but “Ukraine is the second largest nation in Europe” is also misleading because that in geographic area… population-wise it it seventh. Having a larger border area with a much smaller army actually makes it harder to defend an invasion.
I’d love to know who you think on the “Left” is defending that homophobic shrimp Putin….
I don’t know, IIRC they didn’t start getting the heavy duty air defense equipment until late summer and have been retaking ground ever since. They fought with a lot of Soviet-era weapons for a long while.
SNL sucks so bad now than even an “ok” episode seems great.
It it was thoughtful not funny was it meant to be funny it was meant to kick you in the nuts
Really? I thought “Black Heaven” was the weakest sketch of the night. Dave announced the one joke before it started, you got the punchline the second Mikey showed up, and there was no bite to it because you know every like and gesture was rehearsed in advance. Mikey wasn’t really uncomfortable or saying anything white people shouldn’t say. The Potato Hole sketch was the same premise but way way funnier.
It would have been much funnier IMO if it was Colin Jost, and like his running bit with Che, it involved him genuinely not knowing what he was going to say until reading the cue cards.
That’s a brilliant idea. His non-participation in sketches makes it even funnier. Add in someone shoving him out on stage, and way less “reactions” Just a frightened stare most of the time.
I think Mikey was the wrong guy for the sketch. He really overplayed it. I would have liked to have seen someone like Kyle Mooney try it. Someone who really does characters instead of a big voice improv guy.
Potato Hole was one of the skits mentioned in the review that benefited from its brevity. Let all the goofball white people on the show put their ignorance on display without becoming repetitive, then boom – roasted. The end.
It was the same but very skit, though, making fun of white people for being uncomfortable about being around black prior. There wasn’t many skits in it either making me feel like the writers really did go on strike to protest him being the host
There weren’t as many skits because the monologue was like a half-hour long, plus a filmed segment at the end that he didn’t do. The post-2020 election episode was sort of the same thing.
If all the white people in the skit were Jewish, would it still have been funny?
Who was the idiot/hypocrite in the barbershop sketch where the white guy criticizes Kanye West’s anti-semitic comments, and the whole barbershop says nothing?
I mean, that sketch was basically a documentary…
You have incredibly low standards if you think this is an example of Dave hitting it out of the park. This episode was an embarrassment. The monologue was pitiful and unfunny. I say this as somebody that used to think Dave was hilarious. He’s completely lost it. Did we really need a recap of Trump’s entire legacy, along with observations everyone else has been making for the last six years? Also, the hypocrisy of pointing out bigotry while being a blatant bigot is just silly. Dave sucks. I wish it wasn’t true.
why did you think it the smartest bit of comedy of comedy you’ve seen on SNL in awhile? No snark, I’m just generally curious as I thought it was pretty lazy.
“Masterclass” is used way too often in comments sections.
A chef’s kiss to this comment, and a chef’s kiss to the clouds outside. A chef’s kiss to my shoes. Aw my life is such a masterstroke.
Nah.
Despite several good jokes though, calling it a “masterclass” is delusional. It’s just that even Chapelle coasting is still bound to be better than anything SNL is putting out these days.
So in other words, the guy hasn’t updated his act in 20 years. Yeah… I’m gonna pass. I mean, I was gonna pass anyways because fuck terfs, but now I know I also won’t be missing anything.
– the shitposter formerly known as Gnarly Rae Jepsen
SOOOO BRAVEYour medal is in the mail. Everyone really really cares what you think.
His comedy is thought provoking, in the sense that it provokes thoughts of the early 2000s when his fans didn’t feel as boring.
Good to see Dave is still capable of being insightful and funny about real current issues, and not just whining unfunnily about his own personal grievances at getting criticized, which the last stand up special I saw from him left in some serious doubt.
His entire monologue was thinly veiled “whining unfunnily about his own personal grievances at getting criticized”. That’s ALL it was.
No, it was commentary on current events mixed in with his humor. It’s not for everyone.
The “it’s not for everyone” is obvious, given the person you’re replying to was giving his opinion that he didn’t like it. What a weird reply!
Clearly not for 90% of the dipshits that hate post against anything they disagree with on these sites.
no
“How dare you suggest someone I disagree with could have anything insightful to say?”Just one example, but his points about black people being easier to punish for social transgressions than white people are worth considering. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard somebody criticize Kryie Irving in person, but sometimes they do it with a vehemence that really really really seems like part of their problem with him might include the word “uppity.”I know we’ve all seen the “Heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a good point” Onion article a thousand times, but you do actually get more out of life if you think of everybody as being flawed to varying degrees rather than sorting into good and bad camps to write off the latter.
Chill. The guy you’re responding to watched the monologue, and that was his takeaway. I don’t think he’s just writing anyone off. People like you are so fucking sensitive over any criticism.
“People like you” — ah, joke’s on you, I’m an elf!
I don’t know how someone comes to that conclusion about the monologue’s contents if they come to it with an open mind. But sure, it’s subjective. I’ve had a number of frustrating political conversations lately with friends on similar subjects. Sorry I got preachy.
I don’t know how well you can tell whether someone has an “open mind”based on the fact they have a strong opinion that you happen to disagree with. But more basically, who cares? The person you replied to never claimed to even have an open mind, whatever that even means in this context. And why would it matter? Why does anyone need to come into an SNL monologue with an “open mind”? Or more precisely, why are you purporting to judge whether someone went into an SNL monologue with an open mind? What do you think that gets you here? “I bet you had a pre-existing opinion on Dave Chappelle and the shit he’s become notorious for saying over the past few years!” Yeah, probably! Did you go in with an open mind?
It seems like I really struck a nerve. I don’t follow Chappelle. I’m aware of the controversy but haven’t watched any of his stand-up for many years, long before Netflix (sounds like I’m lucky.)I watched the monologue. I raised my eyebrows at parts of it and nodded at other parts. I thought it was thought-provoking. I think there’s great value in seeking out and consuming the words and thoughts of people you disagree with, and Chappelle said things I agreed with and disagreed with, and I got to spend time thinking about why that was and it led me to understand my own views and prejudices better.
It bothered me to see people reflexively dismissing it, and I got emotional and wrote a snarky comment. I really am sorry for not sharing these thoughts in a more constructive way.
Anyway, I am still waiting for the t-shirts that I was under the impression were handed out for sufficiently catty comments (i.e. what I think that gets me here.)
The person you originally replied to consumed it! They watched it! So weird to spend all this time lecturing people who have already done the thing you purport to want them to do. (Not to mention spending all this time lecturing people about a freaking SNL monologue. I’m glad you found it thought provoking, but sheesh).
No, you’ve misunderstood me. I know that they watched it. Anyway, doesn’t matter. Genuinely sorry to have left you so irritated.
I like you!
Yoda (an elf apparently) made a stupid comment, but has thought about his comment, apologized and explained why he made it. I think, at least on these message boards, that’s a good and kinda rare thing.
“It seems like I really struck a nerve.”Only dumb, annoying assholes say this.
Also surgeons coming to grips with a serious mistake in the workplace.
LOL!!!!!
Nah. Also what you think and say doesn’t matter.
Real stand up on the show was great. NBC did not censor DC. A+ for great writing.
Who knows. Maybe the show benefited from having some writers boycott last week.
That didn’t actually happen. It was an unsubstantiated rumor.
And it doesn’t make any sense from what we’ve heard of the writer’s room. It’s not like SNL suffers from too many writers diluting the brilliant writing that could be happening…
You people have a sick desperation that writers boycotted the show actually happened.
This was the best produced SNL episode in decades,
but I wouldn’t expect you younglings to understand.
So, a handful of writers sat out this episode and, as a result, it turned out to be the best of the season. If I were Lorne, I’d thank those writers for identifying themselves as the problem and give them their walking papers.
Did they. I keep reading rumors and second hand reports without naming names but until someone comes forward and says they sat it out I’m not going to believe it. I think Chappelle knows how much cred he gives the show just by showing up, and along with getting to do an extended monologue he gets more input in the sketches than usual. The first NB cast member got a big showcase tonight. (It was meh although I can’t tell if it’s Molly or Please Don’t Destroy).
Chappelle is certainly great at taking credit for other people’s sketches
Exactly–we’ve heard about one writer who maybe boycotted? As to your last point, I’d blame Please Don’t Destroy if only based on this season all of their filmed bits have been lacklustre.
Please DO Destroy, am I right?
It’s definitely Please Don’t Destroy. Those guys do the same schtick every week: overreact to something and escalate the intensity. They need some new tricks.
You are absolutely correct – but I liked this one. Maybe the editing was snappier or something. If it had been Chris Farley instead of Molly doing the exact same lines & gestures (which were *extremely* Farley), the vox pop here would be cartwheeling over it.
That was a rumor, neither c0nfirmed nor denied.. It certainly was interesting and thought provoking, with a few funny moments but like any comedian coming on that show who is able to create or write sketches his fingerprint was on much of the content. Watching him onstage at the end with several cast members missing and him not even bothering to turn around and engage with the rest of the performers, makes me realize he is a very confident man standing on an island of his own choosing. He had 15 minutes of a monologue and yet not one truth about the one issue everyone wants him to address? Bit of a missed opportunity.
“everyone”
I think anything short of a full apology to the trans community, and a promise to never use them in his comedy again, would’ve received even more backlash than not saying anything at all. I’m sure he weighed his options carefully.
I think you may be right, he was deliberate and careful about what he said and the message he wanted to convey. Or he felt hypocritical about saying something without sincerity.
Bowen Yang, Molly Kearney, and Sarah Sherman may regret channeling their inner Nora Dunn.
Right, the members of the queer community were going to have the community yelling at them for not sitting out the Chapelle episode. Okay.
Narrator: “They didn’t ‘sit it out’.”
Not really. SNL isn’t the boon to a comedy career it used to be.
And Nora Dunn ended up fine; working more than, and in better general public sentiment than Mike Myers or Rob Schneider, two of the breakouts from that era.
Myers had Austin Powers and Schneider had Adam Sandler movies, I don’t think Dunn’s work is anywhere near as popular, unless her appearance in “Zoolander” was better received than I thought.
“Had” being the operative word
As opposed to what Nora Dunn *never had in the first place*.
I don’t think the general public has any sentiment toward Dunn, good or bad. I’d probably work more than Mike Myers or Rob Schneider if I wasn’t starring in movies, but was instead playing supporting roles on TV.
Completely different. Dunn completely no-showed the episode. Sherman/Yang/Kearney worked the episode and just had an apparent silent protest in the goodnights. I believe cast members have done things like that before and been fine.
I don’t get the criticism: Bowen and Sarah were both prominently in live sketches, and Kearney was in a pre-taped Please Don’t Destroy short (which was very funny!) this week.
There was literally only one writer ever named as bowing out, despite headlines saying “Some” or “Many.”
Dave (and other name comedians) usually bring 2-3 of their own writers along for their appearances, so the difference is likely *their* contributions and embellishments, rather than – or in addition to – anyone in particular’s conscientious objections this week.
I think it’s good for people to stand against hate. If you actually liked Chappelle at his peak, you would feel the same.
Yes America is harsher on black people, not going to disagree with that point definitely, and Kanye very much needs help. But, and this is important, Kyrie and Kanye are worth an ungodly sum of money and will probably continue to live okay despite the large losses in money. Also ya know… far right has risen in status over the last six years and people have died from it. I wouldn’t be sympathic to rich folks who feel they can just get away with antisemitism. Side note… Kyrie Irving is big into a weird off shoot of the Nation of Islam and has said the world is flat a number of times, this is hardly a first time incident.
To be fair, people have died thanks to the far-left and their billion+ dollars in rioting and political attacks… Only difference is, murder after murder, assault after assault, the propaganda you read never would even acknowledge it.
Kyrie comes off as someone who has lost his mind. Maybe being back in a normal NBA routine rather than stewing in his own juices will be helpful, but I’m not holding my breath.
Are people just purposefully being pro-Chappelle just to troll, because the episode was fine. Not terrible, but not very good (like most of this season). It’s certainly not a B+.
I legitimately thought this was the best episode of the season, and it wasn’t close.
Well, at least now I know if I see your opinions, I can ignore them because they’re bad. Thank you for your reply.
that’s a low bar to cross though.
So…C-? D+?
I was wondering this. I have a not-so-short memory when it comes to bigotry or similarly odious things. I’m sure some of what he did on SNL was thought-provoking, but I don’t have the patience to try to forget the other things he’s said.
I can’t tell anymore man.
They’re not trolling, they just loves them some hate speech.
I think it was slightly better than other episodes this season. The barber shop sketch reminded me of something that would be on the show normally. The House of the Dragon sketch was like a classic SNL bit where they just put popular characters into a sketch. The Mikey Day as Chappelle sketch had the usual SNL problem of just reiterating the same joke over and over.
When someone describes a comedian as “thought provoking” I assume they’re illiterate, so I guess this review was dictated? Maybe the phone misheard “D” as “B.”
Are you really surprised that other people have a different personal preference than you? lol is it shocking to you when someone doesn’t like your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Birth of a Nation. In the 90’s, in a backlash against political correctness, cinema suddenly took a dull, melodramatic big budget blockbuster made popular by Woodrow Wilson, whose school friend wrote the novel, and tried to make it unassailable as “one of the greatest American films ever made.”In reality, Birth of a Nation was a pretty bad movie cleverly applying film techniques developed from Russian and French cinematic powerhouses that relied more on drama and performances and gritty dramatic realism, but it skipped over all of that and gave us white American mythmaking reinforced with broad, simple melodrama that American audiences were used to.D.W. Griffith to his credit was far more ambitious than the movie he was paid to make would let him be, and he brought to it excellent cinematic techniques he learned from movies that had come out years earlier. But it was politically necessary to ignore Russian and French cinema to defend the value of American cinema by connecting it to its poor writing and acting. He was basically remaking Siege of Sevastapol for racists because that’s what he was paid to do and Americans weren’t going to watch old Russian films during the Cold War.Dave Chapelle has become Birth of a Nation. I watched Dave Chapelle’s Lost Episodes with a white friend that laughed hysterically at the most leaden, obnoxious “jokes” I’d ever heard, episodes that literally caused him to abandon the industry altogether — and I realized these episodes were made specifically to make white people happy with Dave Chapelle. The last season of Boondocks after Aaron McGruder had quit the show became Birth of a Nation because his audience had become increasingly white and simply had no idea what his show was about anymore.
These are terribad works of the lowest quality, but the love of white and reactionary audiences for brands that were created specifically to critique them have made it more profitable for these works to critique everyone but them.
So the writers having been slacking all season, but when this bigot turns up, they’re like, “Let’s do some funny jokes this week.”
following his stings —> say what nowconfident and unrepentant producing a polemic SNL episode —> confident and unrepentant, producing a polemic SNL episode the first sketch which juxtaposed the cheery landscape —> the first sketch, which juxtaposed the cheery landscape for his monologue which covered topics —> for his monologue, which covered topics did not have the self-awareness, or inclination to acknowledge —> did not have the self-awareness, or inclination, to acknowledge / did not have the self-awareness or inclination to acknowledge comes down harsher —> comes down more harshly should not have used “the” before “transgenders,” or the term “transgenders” at all in The Closer —> should not have used “the” before “transgenders,” or the term “transgenders” at all, in The Closer James Austin Johnsons—> James Austin Johnson’sCold Open / cold open —> pick one
The Chappelle Show —> Chappelle’s Show Ice T —> Ice-T a ‘worst’ sketch of the night —> no reason for single quotes here
In the first one, that’s probably just a typo for “stints” since the T and G are next to each other (vertically) on the keyboard.As for the rest, yeesh, worse than usual….
Jesus H. Christ.
Just imagine if this weirdo parlayed his shtick into an actual fucking job.
*polemical
this episode was provocative and thought-provokingThis is redundant and pleonastic, and also tautological.
His relaxed and fluid delivery was a reminder of what a gifted comedic communicator Chapelle can be.
*ChappelleHe made SNL feel like it was Chapelle’s show.
*Chappelle’s
Styles of writing differ. I’m a middle school English teacher, and I’m fine with it. Also, please choose one of the following: A. Do you have other hobbies? B. You seem fun.
You over-comma text. Also— you are clearly wrong when you never use the word “nor”. Ex: should not have used “the” before “transgenders,” or the term “transgenders” at all in The Closer —> should not have used “the” before “transgenders,” or the term “transgenders” at all, in The Closer…
Should not have used ….NOR the term….
You make that mistake over and over.
Run! It’s the grammar police!
Ahh yes, “thought provoking,” that thought being “why are we letting people who are making ‘I do hate speech’ their entire schtick host this show?”
After Trump and Musk… anyone can do it. I hear Bill Cosby’s hosting the next episode with musical guest the ghost of Phil Spector.
Unless Lorne has the ability to raise the dead I think we are safe from Phil Spector.
Oh shoot they’re releasing Leonard Part 7?
Der Keller in den ihr Wokies alle zum Lachen hingeht, wie ist die Stimmung da?
Les Wookies sont une invention de George Lucas. Ils n’existent pas, imbécile.
Dave doesn’t do “hate speech” – people like you just use the words to try to shut up anybody that makes you feel uncomfortable. Stop being a fascist. It’s unbecoming…
Because he doesnt do hate speech, thats fucking bullshit. He’s allowed to do it because hes a great comedian.
Don’t discredit the hive mind here. You should be uber offended at all times.
Honest question. Do you folks ever get tired of the incredibly tired and desperate practice of always showing up out of the mists to pat one another reassuringly on the genitals and then go “ooee hivemind ooee we’re so independence thinkers Tucky-wucky always tells me so”?
Who, or, What the Fuck is a “Tucky-Wucky”
I’m guessing Tucker Carlson? But I have no idea and I have no idea who that comment was aimed at.
You’re an extremely unintelligent person.
HA HA noooope. Lazy button pushing and weird voices is not comedy.
“He’s allowed to do it because he’s a great comedian” may actually be the stupidest argument I’ve seen on the internet in the past week, so… congrats on sliding under that incredibly low bar, I guess?
I was gonna say–I’m not even sure where I stand on Chappelle, but justifying the fact that someone should be allowed to host “because they’re a great comedian” full stop is… wha??
You’re extremely unintelligent.
The House of the Dragon sketch sucked. Ice-T was a fun reveal, but the rest was warmed-over Chappelle show. We’ve seen all these characters before and in better sketches.
Not only thay, but lurking in the HotD fandom, folks shut up about the Valeryons almost immediately after the first episode aired (except for those rough wigs). Rings of Power would have been a far more appropriate (and easier) target, but that might have required that Dave actually read something.And to nerd out (because screw Dave and his both sides/ antisemitic nonsense), casting the Valeryons as racially diverse actually contributes more meaningfully to the story, as it removes the plausible deniability of a pretty major plot point. In the book, RHAENYS has dark hair and dark eyes (her mother having been a Baratheon), so it wouldn’t have been completely unheard of that her grandsons might have inherited some of those genes.
I have preferred Clayton Bixby over Rick James frankly and that probably wouldn’t have changed much still.
The skit would have been funnier if I watched a lot of the Chapelle show but I did not so most of it was lost on me.
Yeah, I watched a bit of the Chappelle Show, but not enough to form a connection to any characters. My friend had never seen an episode and was completely confused. I get why fans would be thrilled to see a reunion of their fave characters, but that’s what a potentially good (OK, it probably would have always been bad) sketch became. Which is fine–fanservice for a host always happens. But hardly something to be called clever.
The sketch was OKAY until the Chappelle characters showed up, then it was predictable and kind of sad.
It was like when Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd brought The Festrunk Brothers back a few years ago.
And it was too darkly lit…..
Twitter Scolds don’t fucking matter, Part 576
Nice to hear about SNL – since it left Hulu Ad Free and was unceremoniously shat out on Peacock along with ads (there’s probably a paid ad-free tier on Peacock but nope), we’ve stopped watching. Turns out 48 minute SNL without ads is completely enjoyable – but with ads it’s a visit to the dentist.
I mean for a long time now people with VCRs, PVRs, whatever, have experienced the 48 SNL. Decades really. How long did Hulu have it ad-free? Did you drop cable to depend on Peacock having ad-free programming? (That sounds antagonistic but I’m genuinely curious—here in Canada you can watch it online the next day with only a few ads, if you want…)
YouTube!
I’ve seen a LOT of lazy takes from media reviewers claiming Chappelle “mocked” Kanye and Kyrie. He did no such thing. In fact, he basically agreed with them. All he did was whine about how they’re being punished ‘for saying out loud what everybody thinks’. Chappelle has no problem with anti-semitism, as long as it’s done quietly enough not to disturb the corporate endorsements. Fuck him.
this. the transphoblic motherfucker all but endorsed Kyrie
No no, it’s THOUGHT PROVOKING!Hell, Trae thought it was both thought provoking AND provocative.
SNL sucks, but Chapelle will always be top-shelf entertainment.To love Chapelle’s Show, but to hate his current material, is indicative of institutionalized racism at it’s bedrock. We gave him millions of views as the Black White Supremacist and The Mad Real World and The Niggar Family, in which the very foundation of the comedy was racism, but we can’t hang if he makes an acute joke about beet juice.Literally, people would tell him out in his daily Life, “That sketch about them Niggars was funny”! Like – come on.
You know who can still be racist? White transgender people (which were, at one point I shall endeavor to remind – white men). Sitting back and knowing what comments were spared for Chapelle in ‘05 to Chapelle in 2022, and you can see they are swinging the same drum in a different direction.If you hate Chapelle because of his acute beet juice jokes, but love him when he’s a blind White Supremacist, you are the problem, not Chapelle. To jock against him in this day and age when we’ve had a literal comic book villain as president, as well as Black men murdered by the state in multiple states each day, just speaks volumes to how much more we have to go to truly achieve progress. And it’s not gonna be because we stop making jokes about men scientifically masquerading as female.
And that is what he meant, I believe, in being so scary to just talk these days:Because you can validate his existence if you laugh at his racist punchlines, or you can “cancel” his existence if you in your feelings about jokes lobbied at transgender people.Why would you put one before the other, or any at all? As a gay man, I just don’t understand it. But Chapelle was apart of my development phase, so I found the ability to laugh at everything – Black, “the” Jews, Gays, Transgendered. We’re all fu¢ked up, and we all have idiosyncrasies within our social stratum that are genuinely funny in how different they are to others.
But we are never just one of those things. We can be all. And we should laugh at all it. Cos if we get hung up on just one of those things, we end up where we are today.Peace & Blessings. Laugh&Love&Stay the Hell away from me.
“Punching up” by making fun of racists is fine. Punching down by attacking Jewish people and the LGBTQIA+ community (the term is “transgender”, not “transgendered”, btw) who are also regularly attacked or even killed for simply existing is not. That’s being a bully. That’s Kanye and Chappelle losing every shrapnel of respect I ever had for them for forgetting that all minorities are in the same boat and deserve to be raising each other up in support.
That, and there are tons of black/brown Jews and black trans folk who Chappelle is indirectly disrespecting with his comments as well. Not all Jewish people are white.
No one cares what you think.
If you’re not a minority, I don’t care what you think, either.
The only opinion of “what is offensive to a minority” that matters is the minority group being attacked.
That’s because you’re an intellectually dishonest idiot.
“White transgender people (which were, at one point I shall endeavor to remind – white men).” I believe you don’t understand what the word “transgender” means, or indeed, based on that sentence, the word “people”.Also I’m sure all the black trans women you threw under the bus by talking about “men scientifically masquerading as female” thank you for powerful thoughts on racism.
No one anywhere cares what you think.
you sound real transphobic yourself my dear.
You and your dumb opinions don’t matter.
You sound like an ignorant closed minded dolt my dear.
Yawn.
And it’s not gonna be because we stop making jokes about men scientifically masquerading as female.Please, spare us the drivel next time and just put your transphobia in the first sentence so we can move this along faster, you pretentious bigot.Oh, and from a bi man to a gay man, because apparently highlighting queerness makes being a dickhead okay: fuck you.
BI? Can’t make up your mind?
I like when he mentions the whites.
Yup. When they’re digging on other people, it’s funny. When they’re digging on you, it’s bigotry.
It’s very simple. White, straight men hold the majority of power in society. Making jokes at their expense is not “racism,” because racism necessitates a power imbalance between the oppressor and the oppressed. Punching up at the dominant racial group in society is not racism. Transgender people, on the other hand, are largely powerless and oppressed in our society, meaning a straight, cis man making jokes about them is punching down and qualifies as bigotry. I’m sorry Chappelle hurt your precious white male fee-fees but there is literally no equivalence between that and jokes at the expense of LGBTQIA+ people.
To love Chapelle’s Show, but to hate his current material, is indicative of institutionalized racism at it’s bedrock.Yeah, a whole lot of trans jokes on Chapelle Show? Oh, right, no… because he started his show by observing blackness and punching up at white power structures. And he quit that show because it became so anti-black in its increasing popularity that he bailed on the almost completely white writer’s room in the middle of the final season and Ashy Larry had to host the lost episodes while shucking and jiving for Comedy Central between skits, after which he was immediately replaced with anti-Mexican/anti-gay/anti-woman hack and joke thief Carlos Mencia and then replaced Carlos Mencia with a MAGA Nazi.Come on. You spent his entire career hoping he would finally get to a core belief you hold and now you’re retroactively pretending everyone laughing at him now should always have been laughing at him and vice-versa.
Come off it. He specifically quit Chappelle Show, in his own words, precisely because people were taking the wrong things away from the sort of skits you mentioned; laughing in ways and at parts that made him feel like he was damaging the black community rather than drawing attention to those issues in a funny way. So you’ll have to pardon me if your sanctimonious lecturing doesn’t land with me when he can’t see that he’s doing the exact same thing to the trans community.
He speaks about black people out of experience. He speaks about Jews and trans people out of ignorance. Nothing more complex than that, and as a Jew, you don’t have to defend the new stuff.
“acute beet juice” sounds like what reddit nazis use instead of just saying jew.
FWIW – I’m a jew who liked the episode, but that’s a stupid thing to say if you don’t want folks thinking you are a 4chan dork.
SNL sucks now. OF COURSE the dave chapelle episode was the best one, because hes a great comedian. His mindless, woke critics can go eat a dick.
Way to stick up for bigotry. Good work.
Its not bigotry, his critics who keep regurgitating that bullshit are fucking morons. Half of em (and half is a generous estimate)-probably havent even watched his specials-the media’s just decided he’s the bad guy and they swallowed it, like you, apparently.
I watched his specials and his anti-semitic monologue, and didn’t laugh once.
and you can fuck off
Hi Hannah Gatsby!!!
Context matters in comedy. There is no nuance when cherry picking lines from a routine and claiming them as factual.
No one anywhere cares what you think about anything.
Something tells me you are too daft to even know what bigotry is.
His mindless, anti-woke fluffers can also go eat a dick.
They’re too busy riding Dave’s at the moment
Funny you and your buddys like to call us NPCs. All I see is generic phrases an AI program could have coughed up that can be applied to hundreds of people.
No one asked or cares what you think about anything.
I wonder if OP has any great jokes about attack helicopters he’d like to tell us.
“We’re not bigots. We’re rational likers of Old Babyman Chapelle’s social commentary. WOKE POOPYFACE MEANEEEEEEEEES!!!”
I’m still confused how “go eat a dick” remains an insult. Like… OK? I mean I don’t actually wanna *eat* one, but… sure? “I’m not being biggoted in any way when I say that you all are wrong, but you all are, so go engage in gay sex acts already.” Umm?
Homophobic?
Well yeah. As “suck it” originally was too, though I think now few people think of it in that term.
Hey, little buddy…does, your mom know you are up this late?
His mindless, woke critics can go eat a dick. I, too, feel the need to defend multimillionaires who wouldn’t piss on me were I on fire.
Right but you’re bald and ugly. Also no one cares what you think.
Yet you and your ilk need to attack said millionaires as if they set your or whatever cause of the week you suddenly got behind on fire.Closed minded fool.
This review is a great example of “both-side-ism,” giving the illusion that there are roughly equal sized camps disagreeing about Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle is very popular and only a small group of “very online” people believe he has transgressed against some sacred taboo.
And what controversy there was, this site was part of trying to gin it up in the first place.
Please don’t pass off legitimate suffering and misunderstanding as “some sacred taboo.”I agree he’s more popular and liked than not by a very wide margin, but as soon as your tone betrays your true intentions, you lose those who don’t support bigotry, tacitly or otherwise.
“transgressed against some sacred taboo.”Haha, you mealy-mouthed coward.
No one cares what you think.
Eh. If this were true, why wont he shut up about himself and Kanye?
“Chappelle appeared confident and resolute in his comedy.” So nothing has changed.
You could really see his hatred of both the trans and Jewish communities.
Probably the best episode of the season though that’s an incredibly low bar to clear this season. B to B+ is a fair grade. Like the other times Chappelle hosted, it felt much like a network TV version (watered down) of Chappelle’s Show, right down to Black Star performing (they killed it).
Count me in the pro-Sarah News camp. I need more. Its also looking like Michael Longfellow and Marcelo Hernandez are going to be around for awhile. They are getting heavy use for new cast members, especially Longfellow. Clearly Lorne and the other writers trust them and really, its justified. Both have been good so far.
Chapelle is the laziest working comedian.
Man, in another, more utopian world, I might not have TLDR’d your article. That world is one in which writers WRITE and restrain their axe-grinding to the garage, where it belongs. Editorial absolutism exposes writers for two things: (1) their inability to hold back their arrested 5-year-oldish emotional development from controlling their cognitive facilities and (2) their absolute hubris and total conviction that they are right about everything and oh so special. Perhaps more introspection would reveal how little they understand and the weakness they are projecting.
What in the goddamned hell are you talking about?
Thank you. Couldn’t have said it better.
It’s awesome because he’s complaining about the article being poorly written. (I think) in a post that’s practically incomprehensible.
I didn’t agree with a lot of this review—which seemed to want to actually kinda have it both ways. But I don’t see how anything written in it conforms to whatever: “(1) their inability to hold back their arrested 5-year-oldish emotional development from controlling their cognitive facilities and (2) their absolute hubris and total conviction that they are right about everything and oh so special.”
…means. And actually if you are writing a review anywhere, whatever the fuck I think about it, you better hold to your convictions and have some hubris that you are right about your opinion. That comes with the job. You can argue that they’re wrong, but to argue against their opinion?
Here, let’s translate this from absolute fucking wankery: (1) their inability to hold back their arrested 5-year-oldish emotional development from controlling their cognitive facilities and “I don’t like that a reviewer disagreed with my view, and so I will relegate their view to childishness and mine to ‘adulthood,’ because I r intelligent.”(2) their absolute hubris and total conviction that they are right about everything and oh so special Look in the mirror, you absolute dipshit. ;-*
Bald. Dumb. Ugly.
LMAO what site do you think you’re on?
to hell with Dave Chappelle and all his apologists
No one asked you or cares.
Appropriate user name for this comment
To Hell with idiots that didn’t learn or remember anything from elementary school English and grammar classes.
In almost all respects, the Black community has it rougher and more unfair than anyone else, but the narrative that has taken hold that Black people (or anyone else) are punished more for antisemitism than Jews are punished for anti-Black racism is just nonsensical in recent years.Nick Cannon still has, like, six TV and radio jobs. Numerous Black athletes, politicians, and media figures have made overtly antisemitic comments and disseminated antisemitic conspiracy theories and, aside from some finger-waving, they all are working. And everyone of them provokes an onslaught of antisemitism among the Black community on social media. Even white antisemites are still around (looking at you, Mel Gibson). The only comparable thing in the other direction is Jewish Roseanne Barr who…has been disappeared. And what she said was only OBLIQUELY racist.Most forms of bigotry center around false stereotypes of defects in intelligence, talent, hard work, violence, strength, or sexual deviancy. Antisemitism is practically unique, in that the central narrative is one of ambition and power. Which means that any attempt to actually combat said bigotry or punish anyone for it…simply supports the bigoted narrative.It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position to be in, which is why Jews wth actual power have historically bitten the bullet and hired or appeased the people who hate them. I can’t imagine anyone being overtly bigoted toward any other race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or orientation who would then continue to be supported by the people they were bigoted toward but here we have people like Chappelle being given an open forum on a show run by Lorne Michael Lipowitz. It’s a bizarre and intractable situation.
“I can’t imagine anyone being overtly bigoted toward any other race,
ethnicity, religion, gender, or orientation who would then continue to
be supported by the people they were bigoted toward but here we have
people like Chappelle being given an open forum on a show run by Lorne
Michael Lipowitz. It’s a bizarre and intractable situation.”
There’s of course a long history of gays (almost entirely gay men) doing just that, of course. But you make a really solid point.
Speaking as a gay man, of course you’re right, historically speaking.But it should be pointed out that homophobia neatly falls into the larger bucket of bigotry that says most persecuted groups are stereotyped with negative qualities; in this case, sexual depravity, weakness/ineffectuality, lack of self-control, etc. And again, much of the reason for the strides we’ve made in this community is openness about who we are and the fact that we have sterling examples on a daily basis of those stereotypes being nonsense.Its very hard for Jews to “prove” they don’t malevolently “run things” without…deliberately sacrificing the gains they’ve made or the legitimate power they’ve acquired. It’s a tightrope.
“Antisemitism is practically unique, in that the central narrative is one of ambition and power.”One of the simplest insights I’ve read about the relative success of Jewish populations was that for much of recorded history, you better have a skill that can travel. Thus the heavy emphasis on medicine, law and finance, and the degree of education required by those professions. Also, that the only people they could trust were one another. That’s a recipe for an insular yet successful community, and it’s hard to blame them.
That’s certainly a part of it: even though “it’s uniquely part of a culture” arguments always make me deeply uncomfortable regardless of the culture in question (since they tread very closely to justification of stereotyping) it is factual that early Judaism was unique among contemporary religions in that it had a massive obligation to be literate, which was, in itself, a stepping stone toward further education and then urbanization (which was, frankly, not especially cost-effective at the time for most rural workers).I’ve always found it more relevant to discuss the fact that Jews are blamed for succeeding in professions and industries that they were often FORCED into by ACTUAL elites, and how deeply hypocritical that is. Yes, Jews have played a large role in banking since medieval tines, which is a key factor in Rothschild-focused conspiracy theories, but it’s generally left unsaid or unknown that medieval courts offloaded banking responsibilities onto Jews while the Church was barring its own subjects from lending and borrowing at interest. And yes, those interest rates were exorbitant, usurious, and very profitable for Jews but, again, those rates were in place because their patrons—Christian rotalty—were setting those rates. This at a time when Jews were being barred from property ownership, etc.Jews have had an outsize, disproportionate presence in media and entertainment because Jews were largely the people with the capital and the willingness to take on risk to BUILD the first major studios.Im no apologist for the Jewish people—there is certainly the same proportion of unethical, unscrupulous people in their history as in any culture (in entertainment, there is a long line of monsters from Louis B Mayer to Harvey Weinstein; in finance, you can’t ignore people like Bernie Madoff or Jeffrey Epstein). But the disproportionate way they’re linked together in conspiracy rather than people acknowledging the simple fact that they practically BUILT the industries they are accused of subverting is disingenuous, dangerous, evil.And, unfortunately, those theories are almost impossible for them to shake without actively giving up the only leverage they have.
I guess that whole “they killed JESUS” thing just won’t go away…..
Im going to ASSUME this was a comment meant ironically, but it’s worth noting that Jews were persecuted well before Jesus was even (ostensibly) born and Christianity arose. As a specifically ethnically-deruve religion practiced by a small minority from the beginning the Jews have always been somewhat convenient scapegoats. The entire history of Judaism is one of being “othered.”
The only place I saw the word “controversy” being used were by the media outlets such is this one. I guess the fact that the show was actually pretty good really backfired, huh?
That was a fuckin’ weird monologue.According to the Pew Research Center, Jews make up 2.4% of the U.S. adult population (FWIW black Americans make up ~12%). I know it’s hard for someone like Chappelle or Kanye to believe, but they’re not all wealthy and/or in positions of power. Those everyday people are the targets of antisemitic violence that antisemitic rhetoric exacerbates.
I’m not gonna say his monologue was completely devoid of humor or insightful thoughts. I chuckled a couple times, but I felt uncomfortable way more often. It would be like doing a set about Asian-Americans stereotypes right after the Buckhead murders.No wonder the right has embraced Dave Chappelle.He literally sees the world in black and white.
Seriously where’d all these sad try hard Chappelle ass kissers in the comments come from?
I dunno, but their clicks and comments are gonna lead Trae to just keep writing more Chappelle apologia that is both provocative *and* thought provoking.
The 90s.
Hey! That’s where I’m from!
I made the mistake of scrolling thru the YouTube comments on his monologue until I could scroll no more. I got real sad. And more than a little suspicious that SNL was burying criticism. I had to go all the way to to the bottom before I found any sentiments beyond “masterclass”, “GOAT”, or “See, he’s saying Ye was right.”
Its almost as if….Chappelle has a lot more fans than crybaby haters. I assume that you are just too daft to realize that.
A much, MUCH better place than the small dysfunctional island of Chappelle haters that you and your ilk came from.
Sarah Squirm is God.
Dude blew an anti-semetic bullhorn during his monologue and you’re out here leading with “really makes you think.”Fuck off, Trae.PS: “Provocative and thought-provoking.” Get an editor, good lord.
Crazy idea: If you are offended by Chappelle don’t turn on SNL. But if you do turn it on and are on here claiming offense, fuck off. No one forced you to watch the show.
Side note, he was fantastic and it was their best show in a long time.
Are transgenders really on the same level of Jews when it comes to persecution…?
The comments sections on this site are full of the most ridiculously over-the-top, thin-skinned, virtue signaling, liberal sissies on the Internet, which puts them high in the running for the entire world. And that’s coming from a fairly liberal guy. It’s comedy. He’s a master comedian. If you don’t like what he’s saying, don’t listen, but don’t be offended when the majority of American comedy fans take delight in his work. This opening monologue is the funniest thing that SNL has done since… the last time he did an opening monologue.
Are you seriously telling me that overt antisemitism constituted “one of the season’s best Cold Opens”?
The Fox & Friends sketch was the cold open.
You’re an idiot.
Are you seriously that desperate for your little stars? What, didn’t get enough from teacher in 3rd grade since you were probably too busy eating elmers glue and boogers?
People – what happened to just not liking something and moving on?? Guess I can easily blame social media for allowing people’s inner mental defect to come alive and let them feel like Joe McCarthy for a minute, but not everything that makes you feel uncomfortable needs to be cancelled and removed from culture. Why, that would be a direct parallel to freedom of speech – am I wrong???
Not a word about Black Star? Yasiin Bey’s performance was literally one of the most in-your-face I’ve ever seen on SNL.
Just here for the weird shitheel who is drawn to these threads like a magnet.::to shitheel:: Hi, ya weird fuck! You went time traveling for your last attempt at trolling, huh lil’ guy?
You’re here because you have an empty life and no friends. Ugly bald asshole.
Aw, my fan came back!Ain’t found a hug yet?
Apparently Chapelle’s comedy is just too advanced for me to grasp.Can someone help me understand “there are lots of Jews in Hollywood” and then explain why that is such a next-level bit? I guess I just dont get that humor! Too smart for me!
wow he looks so cool with that cigarette
haha. Totally. It’s an identity thing now.
I don’t agree with everything Chappelle says, but I don’t require my entertainment to agree with my ideology 100% in order to find parts of it thought provoking and even (gasp!) funny. I see the illiberal march of the online Left continues apace.
Dave remains incredibly talented and unique as a performer. I also have zero interest in watching anything he does because I can’t get with the way he sees the world.
You could start by describing him as a comedian and realize that he sees the world comically. And you could… you know, grow a sense of humor and humility.
Dave is never going to fuck you.
Get out of here with this dork ass take.
I guess he’ll host SNL next in Nov of 2024?
It was thought provoking…. only for people who are capable of critical thought.
Sadly, that’s a fading minority, and it’s far easier and more popular to be a mindless, knee-jerk dittohead.
Hey, Mindless knee-jerk dittoheads make up 95% of this sites readers!
People responding to Dave Chappelle trying to expose “this is why people think these things” as “he’s a racist” is like a historian trying to explain “why German people followed Hitler” and being called a Nazi for it. Why wouldn’t we want to examine the causes of prejudice in order to comprehend how to combat them? Because shooting blindly is much simpler than examination. Shoot first, ask questions never.
As much as people paint Chapelle as this bold truth teller, he sure backs down with these vaguely “everyone’s offended” style sets when he’s worried about blowback.The whole time, you could tell he wanted to say more, to tell more offensive jokes (that he thought were funny and/or intelligent) and not have to put a joke on the other side but he was scared.
****BREAKING NEWS!!!****Comedian’s set is taken seriously by half the audience that doesn’t quite understand what a comedian does. Critics describe the horror: “He just walked up a microphone on stage and started talking.”****UP NEXT!!!*****Eco activists die trying to save a family of penguins from drowning, citing: “Birds scientifically can’t swim… Except maybe ducks.”
You are suggesting that the audience at an SNL taping does not know what comedians do?
I’m suggesting that a number of overly reactive takes from people online seems to demonstrate a lack in knowledge of what a comedian does.
This particular moment perfectly encompasses the GOP politician in 2022. If you’re winning, the system works great. If you’re losing then the system is rigged.
Would love to know the criteria for what gets approved and what doesn’t?
Did we all forget what Dave Chappelle’s comedy was like, in the years after he left his show to get buff and religion? Because not much has changed…just the public’s reaction to it, apparently. Seriously, go back and watch it again.All this talk of “punching down”, or “anti-this” or “anti-that” rhetoric, is more indicative of a societal shift, than a tonal shift on his part. Like Carlin, Stanhope, Jeselnik, Jeffries and other shock comics, some offensive shit is going to be uttered. And guess what? Sometimes those most offended are the ones that need to hear it. And sometimes, a joke is in poor taste. But this implication that there is a line that cannot be crossed in comedy is puerile, puritanical nonsense. There is no line to cross.
So Anti-Semitism gets a B+ from the AV Club, eh?
“Maybe the strongest of the season” My dog shit’s turds that are more entertaining than anything SNL has done this season, so that’s an extremely low bar. Chappelle could have just come out and waved, called it a night and it would have been the best episode of the season.
What I liked about this episode is what I like about almost every Chappelle standup bit. Like him or not, he’s been doing this for a long damn time. He’s a total master of structure when it comes to standup. It’s never just joke after joke — the bits fit together, call back t0 each other, and make a point*. That he managed to do this with an SNL monologue was pretty cool.*I don’t want to argue about what point, or how he should or shouldn’t have made it. So I won’t.
I bet I’d like Sarah Sherman more if she didn’t scream. We see you, Sarah, we see you. You’re right there. We can hear you. I have to turn down the tv for your lines or you’re going to wake up the dog.