Dave Chappelle Delivers Powerful SNL Monologue: Addresses Trump, Racism, And Coronavirus

One thing for certain, we can count on Comedian Dave Chappelle to give us his raw and thought-provoking opinions while also making us laugh.

His Saturday Night Live performance on November 7 was a stark contrast to his first post-election monologue four years ago—when Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Chappelle’s second SNL appearance was more of a complex comic take, Yahoo Entertainment reports. If you haven’t watched the 16-minute monologue, you should!

The talented comedian spoke directly to the Studio 8H audience–shortly after the announcement that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election—on a range of topics, including Donald Trump. Chappelle definitely took shots at Trump’s coronavirus response—or lack of response—efforts and moved right along to the irony of Trump coming down with the virus.
“Trump getting coronavirus was like when Freddie Mercury got AIDS,” the comic said to a mixture of laughs and gasps. “Nobody was like, ‘How did he get it?’ This guy was running around like the Outbreak monkey; he looked like a 1970s penis just raw-dogging Earth.”

He made sure to address the elephant in the room, too, the fact that Trump was picked up by helicopter and taken to the Walter Reed hospital for a very short stay, before returning to the White House, taking off his mask and going inside. Likely killing four more people, Chappelle said. Trump’s bout of COVID-19 never stopped him, but his friend Chris Christie had a serious case, and his other ally Herman Cain died after catching it. Just like Chappelle questioned, “Where was his secret serum,”  in which we all wondered the same thing.

“That’s your leader. Think about that: For four years, that’s your leader. What kind of man makes sure he’s OK while his friends fight for their lives and die? A white man. I don’t mean to put this on the whites, but I’ve been Black a long time — I’ve noticed a pattern.”

The topic of racism couldn’t go unmentioned. The comedian went off into his own accounts of dealing with white people in his home state of Ohio, calling Trump out for calling the virus the “Kung Flu”—which he ended by saying, “You racist, hilarious son of a b*tch. I’m supposed to say that, not you.” But what was maybe his most notable part on the topic was when he pointed out that many poor white people refuse to wear their masks—but are fine with wearing it to the Klan rallies.

“I don’t know why poor white people don’t like wearing masks. What is the problem? You wear masks to the Klan rally, wear them to Walmart too,” he said. “Try wearing the mask I’ve been wearing all these years. I can’t say something true unless it’s got a punchline.”

Chappelle told the audience he was nervous about performing, but given his natural ability to capture our attention and hold it, it was hard to tell. He told the audience that before taking the stage, he spent a lot of time thinking about his great grandfather, a former slave who made a nice name for himself.

Saturday night, Dave reflected on his first post-election SNL appearance, recalling many of us feeling “bad,” but Saturday’s historic and “HERstoric” win made for a “pretty incredible” day, as Chappelle would say.