Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: November 7, 2020
Tonight, it’s 4 years and another Presidential election later, and Dave Chappelle is back to host an all-new Saturday Night Live!
Hopefully this becomes an American tradition. Every 4 years, the nation gathers together to vote for a President to lead the country and then the Saturday afterwards, Dave Chappelle returns to host SNL to make us all laugh whether we voted for the winner or not. So far, we’re on our way to making this quadrennial event.
It was a little over 4 years ago, when Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live for his first time. A nation was reeling and in shock. Whether you voted for Donald J. Trump or not in 2016, it was still a surprise and it was going to take some time to get use to the idea of the host of “The Apprentice” as our Commander-in-Chief. And of course, if you voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, you were more than likely devastated at thought of Trump sitting in the White House.
Back in 2016, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels found someone to host Saturday Night Live who could first be funny in a time that didn’t feel all that fun and yet still be poignant enough to handle this very unique moment in history and where for good or bad, things were never going to be the same in America. Dave Chappelle hosting Saturday Night Live on November 12, 2016 was a such a significant event in television history, Chappelle was rewarded with a Primetime Emmy Award for his SNL appearance.
On this unique episode of SNL, cast member Kate McKinnon brought back her Hillary Clinton impression to sit at the piano, singing her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” which was even more touching at the time because the world had just lost Cohen that week too.
There were sketches regarding the notorious election of 2016 where Chappelle shined. And there were guest stars too. Chris Rock made a cameo in one of the sketches featuring white people stunned that Hillary lost the race while Chappelle and Rock’s characters weren’t surprised in the least.
Dave Chappelle even brought back a cast of his characters from his Comedy Central hit series, “Chappelle’s Show.” He worked his characters into a “Walking Dead” parody in an SNL Short that had the live audience screaming and cheering each time one of them showed up on the screen.
But what brought Dave Chappelle social media kudos as well as controversy was his Saturday Night Live monologue. It’s also the reason why 4 years later in 2020, after another presidential election, that Chappelle has been asked back to address the nation once again. As of the writing of this Interrobang column, no winner has been declared in the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, so it’s hard to tell which way Chappelle’s monologue will go.
At the very least, Chappelle should have something to say to third party candidate Kanye West who conceded after receiving a whopping 60,000 votes in the states where he made it onto the ballot. Or it might be more appropriate if Chappelle had something to say to those 60,000 Americans who thought “President Yeezus” was a good idea. Either way, it will be Dave Chappelle’s monologue that we’re all waiting for tonight like it was 4 years ago.
Back in 2016, Dave Chappelle took the SNL stage to thunderous applause. You could tell the audience felt thrilled to have something to cheer for after the news that previous Tuesday night. He opened by asking the audience for their patience because it had been awhile since he had been on stage. But with a mic held confidently in his hand, Chappelle launched into his monologue knowing some would find it controversial, saying, “I didn’t know Donald Trump was going to win the election, but I did suspect it.” He added, “America’s done it. We’ve actually elected an internet troll as our president.” At that point in history, we knew Trump was a Twitter troll, but we had no idea just how bad it would get.
After comments about the news stories of the day like the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and Harambe the Gorilla being killed at the Cincinnati Zoo and the then-growing Black Lives Matter movement, Chappelle turned his comments back to Trump and some of the luxuries of staying at one of his hotels. One Trump hotel joke led to Chappelle giving a live apology to SNL EP Lorne Michaels.
Chappelle then imagined the conversation between President-Elect Trump and President Obama when Trump went to the White House for the traditional transition lunch and meeting. Something we doubt we’ll see in the 2020 version of events. He focused his comments on our 44th President saying, “Obama did a good job. I think we’ll all miss him when he’s gone. Do you agree with this?” That question from Dave Chappelle was answered with more explosive applause affirming Chappelle’s sentiment.
Dave Chappelle wasn’t done with his 11 minute plus monologue yet though. He said, “Before I go, I want to say one thing. And this is not a joke. But I think it’s important that I say this because they’re marching up the street right now as I speak.” Chappelle then went into a story from his own life about going to the White House for a BET party and how just over a century earlier, black people weren’t welcome and barely allowed at the White House. He talked about how that night filled him with a proud spirit.
Then he offered an olive branch of acceptance and well-wishes to the new President, Donald Trump. Chappelle said, “In that spirit, I’m wishing Donald Trump luck. And I’m going to give him a chance. And we, the historically disenfranchised, demand that he give us one too. Thank you very much.” You could have heard a flag pin drop in Studio 8-H. However when Chappelle wrapped up with the obligatory “We’ve got a great show for you tonight,” the crowd went wild for him again.
You wouldn’t think those words, simply wishing a new president well and all the best for our nation’s sake, would be that controversial. But they were. People on the Left and Never-Trumpers everywhere were appalled that Dave Chappelle would give the guy who tried to delegitimize Barack Obama’s presidency by saying he was born in Kenya, a chance.
Less than a year later and only months into Trump’s term as president, Chappelle was taking it all back. He offered his regret at the Robin Hood Gala (which raises money to help fight poverty) in New York City in May, 2017. According to reports and a tweet from Willie Geist from the “Today Show” and “Morning Joe“, Chappelle said, “I was the first guy on TV to say ‘Give Trump a chance.’ I fucked up. Sorry.” Of course, Willie Geist cleaned up the language for his tweet.
A year later in 2018, Chappelle was forced to face his SNL comments about Trump again. Appearing on “The Van Jones Show” on CNN, Chappelle took back his sorry, but added to his regret, saying, “Well, I don’t ever apologize, I said ‘I shouldn’t have said that shit.’” These are comments that apparently still haunt Dave Chappelle. Tonight, he has a chance and a national forum on Saturday Night Live to go back and fix history. On the verge of a Biden Presidency and Trump being dumped after one term, it looks like Dave Chappelle may have the last laugh.
Tonight is probably the last weekend on SNL‘s rental agreement to use Jim Carrey as former Vice-President and potentially new President-Elect Joe Biden. Since no winner has been announced as of yet, tonight’s SNL – Cold Open may just feature Carrey as Biden and Alec Baldwin back as Donald Trump in scenes that cut back and forth between Biden’s celebration and Trump’s temper tantrums and depression. There’s been no word on if Jim Carrey will continue playing Biden if he continues on to victory and gets sworn in next January.
If the election gets called in favor of Biden before SNL goes live tonight at 11:30pm Eastern time, we may see Alec Baldwin as Trump in a parody of the SNL – Cold Open 4 years ago in 2016. Only this time, it will be Trump at the piano singing a version of “Hallelujah“. And then, hopefully we get Alec Baldwin tearing off his Trump wig and makeup and swearing off the impression for the rest of his career. Because as much as Baldwin is tired of playing Trump, SNL fans are equally exhausted from continuing to watch it.
It will be interesting to see tonight how much the election will play in the sketches and shorts on this evening’s brand new SNL. There are plenty of things in the news related to Election 2020 that the SNL writers room could put into the show tonight in sketch form or on Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che.
Those stories include Trump’s many lawsuits involving the states where votes are still being counted and showing why these are called “battleground” states, plus his wacky demand to stop counting the votes immediately without realizing that if the count stopped when he demanded it, he would have lost the race at those current totals.
Also, there’s the Trump thugs or “Trugs” as they’re known, storming a vote center in Detroit to interrupt the count, as well as the President bashing both Lady Gaga and Jon Bon Jovi for performing at Joe Biden rallies and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon declaring he’d like to see FBI Director Christopher Wray and the nation’s lead Covid doctor, Dr. Anthony Fauci beheaded for challenging the President and then having their heads placed on pikes on either side of the White House lawn.
If there’s time on tonight’s 90 minute long Saturday Night Live, there’s things going on besides the election that could be used for punchlines on Weekend Update this evening like the growing Covid problem interfering with the NFL schedule and the Las Vegas Raiders and coach Jon Gruden losing a draft pick for violating NFL mask policies, plus the city of Denver voting to lift the Mile-High City’s 30 year ban on pit bulls, the release of the new Diane Lane – Kevin Costner action drama “Let Him Go“, Julie Andrews revealing she kissed Carol Burnett as part of a prank and calling it “great”, (funny & hot), “The Bachelorette” Clare Crawley ruining the season by immediately getting engaged to one her male suitors while the competition was still happening, and an Idaho man caught trying to cook chickens in a hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. We’ll see if Jost & Che have any comments on those stories.
And to wrap up this piece on a sad note, and it feels like we’ve done that a lot this year, Saturday Night Live will more than likely pay tribute tonight to a film legend who was never on the show, but made 18 SNL appearances over the years. That legend is Sean Connery, the man who was the definitive Agent 007 James Bond for many people, and who passed away this past week at the age of 90. Sean Connery never appeared on Saturday Night Live in person, but he is part of SNL‘s long, comedic history.
Former cast member and current SNL announcer Darrell Hammond is known for his Sean Connery impression. It became the gold standard of Connery impersonations during Hammond’s time as an SNL cast member. Darrell Hammond brought his Sean Connery to Saturday Night Live in several “Celebrity Jeopardy!” sketches.
Hammond’s interpretation of Sean Connery portrayed the James Bond actor as a womanizing, hard drinking bully who terrorized an exasperated “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek played submissively by fellow cast member Will Ferrell. We can expect SNL to relive a few of these moments from Hammond’s 18 Sean Connery appearances on Saturday Night Live tonight as a tribute to a man who was never on the show while still being a Saturday Night Live legend.
Darrell Hammond already paid a personal tribute to the Scottish screen icon in a tweet with a video clip of his world famous impression in a “Celebrity Jeopardy!” scene with Ferrell. Hammond tweeted, “Sorry to hear of the passing of #SeanConnery, my condolences to his family. Always loved doing my silly impressions of him, RIP”.
Included with the promo for tonight’s brand new Saturday Night Live starring Dave Chappelle, we have Willie Geist’s tweet announcing Chappelle’s regret in giving Donald Trump a chance at being President and Darrell Hammond’s tribute tweet to the late Sean Connery.
The one and only promo released by Saturday Night Live this week is a quick 14 second look at Chappelle’s first and only time hosting SNL. There’s a couple of fast clips from his monologue on November 12, 2016, just days after America elected an “internet troll” according to this evening’s host.
Tonight, Dave Chappelle returns to Studio 8-H to once again address the nation after a presidential election and to host Saturday Night Live for the second time with musical guest, the fabulous Foo Fighters who are making their 8th appearance as a musical guest on SNL. The post-presidential election fireworks begin on Saturday Night Live this evening at 11:30pm et and live coast-to-coast on NBC!
Dave Chappelle tonight in NY on his November SNL monologue: "I was the first guy on TV to say 'Give Trump a chance.' I f***ed up. Sorry."
— Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) May 16, 2017
Sorry to hear of the passing of #SeanConnery, my condolences to his family. Always loved doing my silly impressions of him, RIP 🙏🏻
“Mr Connery you wear me out!“
“You didn’t say that last night when I was pumping moo goo gai pan all over your tonsils!”pic.twitter.com/v1lUYS0MFV— Darrell Hammond (@DarrellCHammond) October 31, 2020
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