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Four-Time Host Dave Chappelle Smokes His Way Through a Bloody, Dull SNL Episode

The comedian's fourth time hosting the show began with him vocalizing his support for Palestine, but the rest of the episode was listless and full of blood, 'Chappelle Show' characters, and everybody's favorite 1922 sex symbol, Nosferatu.

By Matt Mitchell  |  January 19, 2025 | 3:25am
Photo courtesy of NBC
TV Reviews Saturday Night Live
Four-Time Host Dave Chappelle Smokes His Way Through a Bloody, Dull SNL Episode
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As fate would have it, of course Saturday Night Live would go on winter break just as the show was finally getting its footing this season, as back-to-back episodes hosted by Chris Rock and Martin Short caused quite the laugh-filled commotion. Granted, they weren’t tremendous episodes, but Short’s spot was especially fresh, and the show was able to bring 2024 to an end with joke swaps, Christmas cheer, a big Hollywood guest list and Hozier singing a cover of the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York.” All seemed to be well at SNL heading into 2025.

And here we are, welcoming the show into a new calendar year with Dave Chappelle hosting it for the fourth time. His first appearance on the show came just days after Donald Trump was elected into office in 2016, and his second appearance came just days after Joe Biden was elected into office in 2020. So, naturally, this time comes just two days before Trump is sworn in for his second term. In his monologue, Chappelle makes a quick mention of the pattern and reveals that Lorne Michaels asked him to host the first episode post-election in November, but the comedian declined. But Chappelle is like a magnet to great political transition, and he’s never hosted SNL in a non-election year (his third appearance came right after mid-terms in 2022).

Chappelle’s last hosting gig, in November 2022, came with controversy not far behind it. The comedian had come under intense (and deserved) scrutiny for making transphobic remarks during his Netflix specials, The Dreamer and The Closer. He called himself “team TERF,” compared trans people’s genitals to plant-based food substitutes and doubled down on all of it, playing the victim—of cancel culture, woke tirades, political correctness and whatever else the so-called “truth tellers” in the art world peddle to remain relevant.

Now, maybe you don’t know much about me. Maybe you read my SNL recaps without engaging with any of my other work here at Paste. It’s one of our most-read columns outside of our core readership, so that would make sense if that’s the case. But you should know that I am a part of the trans community, as a non-binary intersex person. And you should know that I do not go out of my way to engage with Dave Chappelle’s comedy. The Chappelle Show has, over the years, pulled a few chuckles out of me, but Chappelle’s style of joke-telling has never resonated with me—and that was true long before he ever told a transphobic joke in one of his Netflix specials.

Do I think Dave Chappelle is a bigot? I do, because people who aren’t bigots don’t fill their art with bigoted material. Do I think Dave Chappelle is a bad person? I do, because his anti-trans comedy gives access to violent, hateful people. Few comedians have ever been as important in the lexicon of Black entertainment as him, and his legacy rests in the company of Pryor, Murphy and Foxx, but he has made terrible, unforgivable jokes about my people. I can hold both parts of his career as true simultaneously, though, and he brought that truth into the light during his monologue last night. He illustrated that bad people who say bad things can also say good things. He got up on a stage last night and, in front of millions of people, advocated for Palestine without making a joke about it. He celebrated the late Jimmy Carter’s courage upon his visit to the Middle East and pleaded for all of us, including Trump, to “do better” and to show decency towards displaced people in the Palisades and Palestine. Kudos to him for doing that; the genocide in Palestine has been almost completely avoided by SNL this season.

Chappelle is not a fundamentally good SNL host, but he is clearly somebody who Lorne trusts with hot-button episodes, even if he smokes his way through segments and seemingly disappears once the pack has run out. But his monologue last night ran far too long. Watching it, it became clear that we were on a fast-track for five sketches or less by the show’s end, and I was right. He mentions Trump’s comments about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, conspiracy theories, Luigi Mangione, Diddy and snitching. While smoking a cigarette, Chappelle delivers an incredibly well-executed joke about poor people wishing ill on celebrities affected by the Los Angeles fires. He tosses in a gay joke in there about West Hollywood being unaffected by the fires, because you “can’t burn what’s already flaming.” It all goes on for so very long, but there are barely any hiccups. Even Chappelle’s riffing serves a purpose. And, as far as host monologues go, I’d wager that Chappelle’s has been the best all season.

But how did the rest of SNL fare on last night’s episode? Well, as a wise cue card says…

“Live from New York…”

Rachel Maddow is back on TV for Trump’s inauguration, and this time she’s played by Sarah Sherman, who’s the third cast member to play the MSNBC anchor (along with Cecily Strong and Abby Elliott). It’s a political analyst roundtable featuring Chris Hayes (Andrew Dismukes), Joy Reid (Ego Nwodim), Stephanie Ruhle (Chloe Fineman), Claire McCaskill (Heidi Gardner) and Ari Melber (Marcello Hernandez). There are a few gags here, like Melber talking exclusively in rap lyrics (“Y’all gonna make me lose my mind, up in here… up in here”) and the constant “breaking news” interruption of Trump making outlandish claims online, especially trading Connecticut for Italy, telling wildfire victims that “Arnold Palmer had some of the longest balls in American history,” that he would “end fire by filling the UP house with water balloons,” and that he was having Don Jr. “explore the possibility of purchasing the Emerald City” after watching Wicked. Also, Chris Hayes, who is called “Woke Shelden,” keeps getting mistaken for Rachel.

James Austin Johnson shows up as Trump and comments on TikTok, claiming that his administration loves the now-dark app (as a zoomer with brain-rot, I am glad we got a Rizzler mention last night) and will bring back the Ice Bucket Challenge. He says his inauguration will be indoors because there are “too many people to fit outside.” Trump introduces his newest cabinet pick, the pathological liar and disgraced congressman George Santos (Bowen Yang) who has now been named “Secretary of Fact-Checking” and “Ambassador to Sephora.” Santos claims that Jimmy Carter was his dad and he also name-checks Club Chalamet, a fun Easter egg before Timothée Chalamet’s double-duty appearance next week. But the Maddow segment ends up being more messy than exciting.

“You look mahvelous!”

It’s not like there is much material to work with here, but the best sketch of the night was “Evacuation Alert.” A Los Angeles family (Chappelle, Nwodim and Devon Walker) have to evacuate their house during the wildfires, but what’s in their go bags isn’t quite enough. The dad pulls out a sledgehammer and tears down a wall, revealing half-a-million in cash and a fake passport. Behind a painting are guns and a thumb-drive of bank accounts. A Bosnian hitman (Michael Longfellow) attacks the family, but the dad shoots him in the neck. Blood—a lot of blood—sprays everywhere, covering Chappelle, Nwodim and Walker.

There’s a fun interaction between the father and son, the latter of whom admits that he’s never held a gun before because he’s in high school and plays the bassoon. “I’m sorry, son, I let you down,” the dad says. “I raised you soft, like a bitch.” When the family begins to worry about where their dog Buster is, the dad locates him and cuts open his stomach. With blood gushing everywhere, the dad pulls a cell phone out of the dog’s guts, calls a number and begins speaking fluent Chinese. Surprise! The evacuation alert was a false alarm. “You passed my test,” the dad says, clapping. “Just gotta be a little bit faster next time, that’s all.” The mom kicks him out of the house and he leaves, but not before telling them that the cat has a pager in his ass. I don’t know why, but every time an SNL sketch has fake blood spraying everywhere, I buy into it. Maybe that’s why “Farewell Mr. Bunting” is still a gut-buster.

“Yipee! Jerry Rubin died last week.”

The last time we heard from Colin Jost and Michael Che, they were gifting us with one of their best joke swaps yet. So, it’s no shock to me that last night’s Weekend Update began with a rousing applause from the studio audience. They tackle the expected topics, like Biden’s final days in office, Trump’s impending inauguration (which is on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, naturally), spikes being installed on NYC turnstiles, the Shrek donkey model dying just before he could testify about the Diddy parties, soup-flavored candy, dementia cases rising and geographical bra size averages.

Jost also introduces a new segment, “Hear Me Out,” where he argues that A.I.-generated child pornography is “the best possible solution for pedophiles” because the kids are fake before recanting his own opinion mid-joke. Jost and Che are able to keep a little bit of their joke swap momentum going this week, but the news portion of Update doesn’t quite move the needle for me, except for when Jost calls Mark Zuckerberg a “Puerto Rican gigolo.”

I maintain my stance that Michael Longfellow ought to be an Update anchor one day, so it was nice seeing him return to the desk for a spot last night. Longfellow isn’t your textbook character guy, but my goodness can he work a room with his observational material. The late-millennial wants to talk about TikTok and why it shouldn’t be banned in the United States (the app went dark just hours before SNL went to air), but it’s clear that the app—and, perhaps, social media in general—has warped his attention span and sense of self. He says that, because of TikTok, he learned that Jesus Christ was from China and not the Middle East like he previously thought. Longfellow’s deadpan talent is remarkably underutilized in Studio 8H, and few people could sell a joke about online misinformation this well.

Sarah Sherman takes a break from playing straight blonde women to play 1922’s biggest sex symbol, Nosferatu. “I’ve crossed oceans of time to find you… and the George Washington Bridge!” Sherman is playing the OG Count Orlok here, not Bill Skarsgård’s recent take on the cursed Solomonar. And, ever the Andy Kaufman of body horror, she is right at home here. Nosferatu laments not getting an audition from Robert Eggers, likens the jacked, titular vampire “shirtless Ned Flanders” and says that Sarah Sherman is his favorite cast member because “she’s been on her period for three years straight.” It’s not Sherman’s best character work, but having 1922 Nosferatu body-shame 2024 Nosferatu is a neat concept that lands because she’s going all-in on it.

“Who’s the barber here?”

The “Immigrant Dad Talk Show” from Season 49 is back, as the son-hating Joaquin Antonio (Hernandez) joins forces with his Black neighbor, Richard (Chappelle), who has three kids (two who grew up in his house, and one that he only knows by voice) of his own, one of them being a son who no longer has a bedroom door because of a porn addiction. Day comes on as Kevin, a dad/guidance counselor who is overly affectionate with his son (Dismukes) and daps up his wife (Fineman). My favorite moment in the sketch comes at the end, when Richard introduces his son, daps him up and says “Nice to meet you.” Incredible conclusion to an otherwise average returning sketch.

“In a word? Chaos.”

“Police Station” was fine. Walker returns here to play a man whose girlfriend has gone missing. Two cops (Bowen Yang and Mikey Day) are pressing him on a simple procedure and need to know her weight. A janitor, Dwayne (Kenan Thompson), becomes an angel on the man’s shoulder, warning him of the police’s traps and instructing him to not answer any questions, especially not his girlfriend’s weight. “And how old is she?” one cop asks. After some maneuvering from Kenan behind them, Walker comes up with a totally helpful response: “She grown.” “And what does she do for work?” the cop follows up. “She a queen,” Walker replies. Hearing Day repeat the description, that the missing woman is a “tiny, 85-pound, Black queen with a beautiful soul” was a picture-perfect kicker. Chappelle is absent from the sketch, and I’m bummed that we didn’t get any on-screen interactions between him and Kenan last night—though it’s good to see Walker getting some well-earned air-time.

“You are weak like H.R. Pickens!”

The 10-to-1 sketch was a disappointing finale to an even duller night of comedy. It’s a dating show spoof called “Pop the Balloon,” where, you guessed it, women pop balloons when choosing prospective men to date. It’s a pre-recorded sketch, too, which is rare when SNL is doing game show-style material. But I think it worked well this time, allowing the characters to stretch out. Musical guest GloRilla makes a cameo here, and Sarah Sherman gets a good line about cheating in before we are introduced to the stars of the sketch: Silky Johnson (Chappelle) and Beautiful (Donnell Rawlings), two characters better-known from the Chappelle Show. Rawlings also brings back his Ashy Larry character. I liked the returning Chappelle Show characters a bit better in the House of the Dragon and Walking Dead sketches better, though. Still, “Pop the Balloon” worked because of the nostalgia alone, as Chappelle bringing his Comedy Central greatest hits to NBC is tried-and-true enough to warrant a few reprises.

Not Ready For Primetime Power Rankings

1. Ego Nwodim
A good episode for Nwodim last night, who appeared in the cold open, “Evacuation Alert” and “Pop the Balloon.” Her work was spot-on in every sketch, and her performance in “Evacuation Alert” was especially well done.

2. Devon Walker
Last night was a breakout episode for Walker this season, who got to shine alongside Chappelle in “Evacuation Alert” and then command “Police Report” alongside Kenan. All things considered, SNL should use Walker more.

3. Sarah Sherman
No cast member flexed their range better than Sherman last night, as she played both Rachel Maddow and Nosferatu in a 45-minute span. She also showed up in “Pop the Balloon,” leaving her fingerprints all over the episode.

Goodnights

“It’s the first political opinion I’ve ever had.” —Michael Longfellow on opposing the TikTok ban

SNL will return next week, as Timothée Chalamet hosts for the third time. After showing off his singing chops in A Complete Unknown, he’ll also be performing as the episode’s musical guest. It should be a fun one. And that’s the way it is! Goodnight.

 
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