Comedian Dave Chappelle sure knows how to grab the crowd’s attention. He is one of the few comedians today who has no filter in their comedy. This is also the reason why he found himself in the middle of quite a bit of controversy. One such event included Dave Chappelle receiving criticism from the LGBTQIA+ community for remarks he made in his Netflix special, The closest.
Well, Dave Chappelle is ready to welcome more controversy into his life, due to his appearance in the 47th season of saturday night live. His monologue included Kanye West and jokes about his anti-Semitic comments. The backlash towards the comedian is no surprise. Well, at least the ratings went up.
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The Dave Chappelle monologue that boosted ratings
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Before starting his monologue, Dave Chappelle unfolded a paper and read it aloud as a taste of what was to come. He said he spoke out against anti-Semitism and supported his Jewish friends. After he finished reading the statement, he said, “And that, Kanye, is how you save time.” regarding the Kanye West controversy.
Chappelle’s fifteen-minute monologue was quite disconcerting to viewers. He made jokes about Jews running show business and said that while he might not be crazy to think that, it’s definitely a big deal when someone says it out loud.
“..you could go to Hollywood and your mind could start connecting some sort of dots, and you could maybe adopt the illusion that Jews run show business. It’s not a crazy thing to think about, but it’s a crazy thing to say out loud in a climate like this.
Some viewers believe Chappelle was implying that the now-disgraced rapper’s only flaw was that he spoke an unspoken truth. During his monologue, he also mentioned that although he saw many Jews in Hollywood, that doesn’t mean anything. He said just as Ferguson has a large number of black people, that doesn’t mean they run the place.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt expressed his disappointment saying that while the world shouldn’t expect Chappelle to be a “moral compass, at least saturday night live should have stopped the comedian’s monologue. He further questioned why their trauma had to “trigger applause.
Regardless of what happened, the SNL episode recorded an audience of 4.8 million. While that’s not a lot compared to how previous seasons have done, it’s still an increase from the recent tragedy that has been SNL’the hearing. The show averaged 4 million viewers prior to Chappelle’s episode. Is creating controversy the only way to SNL get views?
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Dave Chappelle keeps his plan a secret
According to Page Six, a source reported that Chappelle’s monologue was not discussed beforehand. Apparently he had a different play during rehearsals about a writer who refused to work with him. While everything was going well, the comedian then swapped the fake monologue with the real one during the live show, and the rest is history. If there’s any truth to that report, it seems Chappelle certainly didn’t want the SNL team to find out what he was doing.
It was also reported that some of the show’s writers were disappointed with Chappelle’s return as host, that they decided not to hold this episode altogether. Looking at the comedian’s story, controversy seems to follow him wherever he goes.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
