Though Dave Chappelle has been the favorite to host Saturday Night Live’s first post-election episode since 2016, this time around, the late night show is going in a different direction, with comedian Bill Burr tapped to host its return on November 9.
Chappelle taking the SNL stage after an election became a tradition of sorts, but for reasons unknown, SNL boss Lorne Michaels is switching up the show’s ritual and replacing Chappelle, as it gears up to follow the most consequential presidential election in American history.
All three of Chappelle’s hosting gigs at SNL came the weekend after big elections. In 2016, he followed Donald Trump’s White House win and famously said, “I didn’t know Donald Trump would win the election,” but he did “suspect it,” since “I know the whites.”
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In 2020, just after Joe Biden’s win, Chappelle delivered a longer-than-usual monologue, as he celebrated Trump’s loss as “a pretty incredible day,” but opined that his ousting didn’t automatically mean a “safer America.” Those two appearances won him Emmys for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series.
But in 2022, immediately following the midterm elections that year, Chappelle landed in hot water for making anti-semitic comments in defense of Kanye West. By then, Chappelle had also dug in his heels on his comedic material about transgender people over the course of multiple Netflix specials.
Several SNL writers reportedly boycotted his return to the show, though a show rep said there was “no evidence” that anyone was sitting out the episode for that reason.
Now, some LGBTQ+ rights advocates are celebrating that Chappelle is out this year and thus “won’t spend 20 minutes five days after the election attacking trans people after the swing states have been inundated with anti-trans ads for the last two or three months.”
However, Chappelle’s replacement Bill Burr is himself not without controversy. A month before Chappelle hosted for the second time in 2020, Burr drew criticism for making homophobic comments in his monologue, during which he went after cancel culture, “wokeness,” and did a bit about not knowing what Gay Pride Month was in New York.
His jokes didn’t land on stage, and elicited comments from social media users calling it “the worst SNL monologue I’ve seen in years.”
But, perhaps in an effort to keep things balanced, Lorne Michaels has booked Charli XCX, who was one of Kamala Harris’ first celebrity boosters, as both host and musical guest the following Saturday, Nov. 16.
