November 7th SNL Review — Dave Chappelle and The Foo Fighters
This past Saturday, Dave Chappelle hosted NBC’s flagship program, Saturday Night Live, with musical guest, The Foo Fighters. Essentially four years since Chappelle’s last time hosting the show immediately following President Trump’s 2016 electoral victory, he got the opportunity to host immediately following his electoral loss on Saturday. Given the monumental shift in American politics and spirit, it seemed only fitting that immediately following President-elect Biden’s victory speech, Dave Chappelle would be the first person Americans would see discussing the outcome of such an important election. Given the monumental nature of this episode and the levity it carried, it was not a typical episode by any means, so I can’t really score it in comparison to any of the others this season, but I will say everyone should check it out. As I explain each segment, this will make more sense.
The cold open was one to remember, with Jim Carrey and Maya Rudolph celebrating their electoral victory as President and Vice President elect, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Alec Baldwin also made perhaps his last appearance as Donald Trump. Per usual, it was a funny opener, which garnered massive cheers from the crowd. Following the open however, very little about the show was usual.
Chappelle’s monologue was far from ordinary compared to most SNL monologues. For starters, it timed out at 16 minutes, which is easily double the time of the average monologue, if not longer. Also, the censors were completely non-existent, despite the fact that the show was still on NBC in its normal time slot. Therefore, Chappelle not only dropped the N-word on more than one occasion, but it was a central part of the monologue. Throughout the profanity riddled diatribe, Chappelle still managed to provide a thoughtful commentary not only on the results of the election, but COVID-19, the recent social injustices across the U.S., as well as a reflection on his last time hosting back in 2016 when he asked people to give President Trump a chance, while simultaneously asking then President Trump to give the historically disenfranchised a chance as well. The whole monologue felt important, like a moment in history that people will remember, but that didn’t stop Chappelle from making it hilarious, and easily the best monologue SNL has seen in a few years.
Following the monologue were the sketches. The first sketch showed white business owners firing Aunt Jemimah and Uncle Ben from their maple syrup and rice advertising campaigns due to the changing social landscape in America given that both were slaves. This was a great sketch, which is why both Chappelle and Pete Davidson seemed unable to keep themselves from laughing. Following this were three sketches, two video and one live, which were all good. Surprisingly enough, however, Chappelle did not appear in any of these 3 sketches, adding to the unusual nature of the episode. The video sketches consisted of a very troubled man asking for his ex back, and an anniversary promo for Super Mario 35 years following its’ release, made up of confessional style interviews about what players remember about their childhood when playing iconic Mario. One of these confessionals, however, consists of two friends reminiscing on dark memories, which have very little to do with the games themselves, much to the shock of the other interviewees. The one live sketch in this portion which did not include Chappelle was called hailstorm, and showed neighbors Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson slowly falling for eachother whilst being interviewed for the coverage of a horrible storm. All of these were good, but it seemed beyond strange to have a talent like Chappelle not appear in sketches on the night he hosts.
After these and a musical appearance, Weekend Update came on. Jost and Che delivered punchline after punchline mocking the President’s defeat, and couldn’t seem to take the smiles off their faces. In addition to some killer jokes from those two, Kate McKinnon came on as Rudy Giuliani and absolutely crushed. She made fun of unwarranted claims of voter fraud, Rudy’s Borat controversy, and just about everything you can make fun of when it comes to the notorious lawyer.
Following Weekend Update was one last sketch, which did include Chappelle. This sketch saw Chappelle as a co-anchor of a DC morning news program, which was covering live footage taken from OJ’s notorious White Bronco car chase, only with voiceovers of Donald Trump in the car being driven by his son, Don Jr. While obviously controversial the sketch was quite funny, though it did illicit some groans from the audience upon some of the more offensive punchlines. That’s saying something about the jokes given that an SNL live audience is more often than not extremely willing to laugh at the President.
As I’ve previously stated, I can’t really review this episode with a traditional score given that it was far from traditional. What I can do, however, is recommend that you watch it for yourself, or at least the opening monologue.
