On Saturday, November 12th, Saturday Night Live aired, just as it normally does. However, this was the episode that followed one of most infamous presidential elections, that in which Donald Trump shockingly took the White House. We are sadly part of a broken America, where people are fighting against the powers that be on both social media and in the streets. Comedy, it seems, was needed. And bad.
Saturday Night Live delivered the goods, bringing in Dave Chappelle, who has a ton of fantastic stand-up specials and also had a short-lived sketch show on Comedy Central, called simply, "Chappelle's Show.". His departure from the latter was a bizarre tale, and many wondered why the titular star bolted from an extremely popular and honestly hilarious program.
The show always had Dave combine silly, over the top material with some satire that made truthful jokes about our country at large. Knowing Chappelle's genius to keep his finger on the pulse of political troubles meant that Saturday Night Live had locked a host that would no doubt win over audiences with a grand commentary on the recent election.
Following a beautiful cold open by Kate McKinnon portraying Hillary Clinton singing "Hallelujah," Dave Chappelle gave an opening monologue, same as any other host in the history of the show. However, Chappelle ground his humor in reality, and towards the end, he gave it a personal touch. In an 11-minute time span, Dave Chappelle touched the funny bones and the hearts of the American people.
The rest of the show followed protocol, as sketches were done, Chappelle elevating everyone. Most notably, there was a Walking Dead spoof that had the host as Negan and all the kneeling down victims as familiar characters from "Chappelle's Show."
It was an entertaining hour and a half, but man, that opening monologue by the comedian still rung in my ears as SNL went through the typical motions. 10 years ago, Chappelle disappeared from his hit show, upsetting fans that had fallen in love with his form of hilarity, as it provided escapism from the garbage that the world tends to dump on us every now and again.
Thankfully, SNL was able to grab Chappelle out of nowhere, and the man delivered what the country needs, not just humor, but a new perspective. Sure, there are a lot of comedians out there that can do similar to what he did on Saturday Night Live, but being absent for a decade may have helped his return dramatically.
The world needs a good laugh, even if its embedded in a raunchy, biting, tone. Dave Chappelle gave us that and more on the November 12th, 2016 edition of SNL and it was so desperately needed. It goes without saying that...
Dave, don't leave us again. We need you now more than ever.
