Dave Chappelle has never hesitated to touch the third rail, knowing that his unassailable craftsmanship can navigate him through plenty of thorny subjects (abject trans hate, excluded).
With that in mind, it might not be surprising that "Saturday Night Live" gave the button-pushing comedian a list of "no-nos" during his recent appearance on the long-running series. Chappelle told a San Francisco crowd on February 13 that producers on the show warned him away from talking about transgender people and Gaza. According to a review in SFGate, Chappelle mentioned the moment in passing and failed to elaborate.
Chappelle has long been a supporter of a free Palestine — in fact, he said "free Palestine" at the show in question before dropping the mic — but specific references to Gaza were largely absent from his monologue.
The discursive 17-minute-long spiel he shared on "SNL" touched heavily on politics and briefly mentioned Palestine in a story praising late President Jimmy Carter. He told a long and heartwarming story about Springfield, Ohio, the town that was briefly demonized by Donald Trump and JD Vance. Chappelle said the Haitian immigrant community saved the town and pushed back against unfounded claims that the new residents were eating household pets.
"They saved a lot of companies. They did jobs that the whites weren't doing," Chappelle said of the town. "[White people] were busy doing other things: heroin, sleeping on the streets, you know what it is."
He added that he tried to support the community by eating at local restaurants.
"To be honest with you, I don’t know what that meat was," he joked. "But whatever it was, it fell right off the bone."
The "SNL" monologue closed with a direct plea to Trump to avoid using the office for revenge.
"The presidency is no place for petty people," he said. "Whether people voted for you or not, they’re all counting on you."
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