Dave Chappelle hosts for the 4th time with musical guest GloRilla

Welcome to 2025, Conehead nation! There is so much Saturday Night Live satisfied these days, I can hardly keep up. Documentaries, 8H “experiences” and now, oh yes, the return of season 50.

Dave Chappelle hosts the first episode of the new year, in his fourth concert. The previous episodes hosted by the legendary (if increasingly controversial) stand-up were mostly grounded in election reactions; they were November shows. Tonight’s episode also has a political twist – we’re less than 48 hours away from the end of Joe Biden’s presidency and Donald Trump’s return to the White House. How will Dave understand this?

I am honored to be here tonight with comments from earlier SNL cast member Jerry Minor, who plans to launch a new podcast with ECamm, Playing in the back of the room. On Chappelle, Minor shares, “I’ve always been a big fan … I think he’s great and he’s usually a really good host.”

Reflecting on the coming Trump 2.0 era of comedy, Minor believes it will be difficult to strike the right tone when it comes to political jokes: “Obviously shows like Saturday Night Live will continue to do them. But how does it happen? How do people make fun of him? How mad is he going to be about the way people make fun of him?” He adds, “During the 2000 election, Bush and Gore both came SNL and made pieces. Back then, both candidates would probably make an effort to at least appear in some way on the show… Even back then, we felt that no matter how I felt about either candidate, there was always an effort to not get too close on them because I knew I was going to have to make fun of them.”

Scroll down and be happy folks. Hopefully our friends at 8H are well rested and ready to face the moment.

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Cold open

It’s a special MSNBC report with Rachel Maddow (Sarah Sherman), who is back on TV for Inauguration Weekend. Chris Hayes (Andrew Dismukes) is “Woke Sheldon” as part of a group of progressive Avengers for our collective aunts — the group vows not to hunt down every crazy Trump statement. But sure enough, they can’t resist – every statement from Trump distracts them. Real politics is too boring.

Meanwhile, Joy Reid (Ego Nwodim) calls out Chloe Fineman’s Stephanie Ruhle for trying to hook up. And Marcello Hernandez keeps quoting old pop songs, including “The Real Slim Shady.” As Trump himself puts it, the anchors are terrible, like Scooby Doo “All Velma”. They cut to James Austin Johnson’s Trump introducing the latest member of his cabinet, pathological liar George Santos (Bowen Yang). Interestingly, the show thinks of Yang’s Santos as a fan favorite.

This is an OK media critique as the show begins to rethink its position on Trump and the new normal. Not brilliant or ambitious in its satire, but solid.

Monologue

Chappelle comes out wearing a nice suit and smoking a cigarette. He says he’s in a pickle – Lorne Michaels asked him to do the election episode back in November, but he declined. He kept pushing it off until he decided it was time to get rid of his old Trump jokes. Now the LA fires have changed things. Is it too early to joke about celebrity homes being destroyed? While he is tired of being controversial, he gives it a shot. He talks about poor people, West Hollywood, Luigi Mangione and conspiracy theories.

He returns to Trump and the rumors that Haitian immigrants stole and ate pets in Springfield, Ohio. He throws his cigarette to the ground and laments that being famous is no longer fun. With some understatement, he notes that Diddy is in a bit of trouble! Is he ugly, Dave wonders? Or does he just lack energy? The baby oil bit here is a highlight for me. This has to be one of the longest monologues of the season. He returns to the death of Trump and Jimmy Carter and tells a moving story about the former president going to Palestine. He pays tribute to Carter’s courage and leaves a message for Trump – and all of us. “Make it better,” he pleads. Show decency to people whether they live in the Palisades or Palestine. Moving and stylish.

While Minor shared that he’s not a big fan of a lot of modern stand-up, Chappelle is still someone he wouldn’t mind working with as far as sketches go. Minor has previously crossed paths with Chappelle, noting, “Comedy Central had an award show years and years ago, they only did it for three or four years. I was a performer. I think he got an award that year, maybe best stand up.”

“Immigrant Father’s Talk Show”

This sketch returns from season 49 — Joaquin Antonio (Marcello Hernández) hosts a talk show as an immigrant father who dislikes his son. Chappelle joins him today as “Black Neighbor Richard.” His son lost access to his bedroom door due to a porn addiction. His next guest is Mikey Day, a local supervisor. His relationship with his son Conor (Dismukes) is all too loving and close – his wife (Fineman) is completely iced out. A little sweet.

“Evacuation Alarm”

A family decides to evacuate the fires. The father (Chappelle) has a secret, he takes a sledgehammer to the wall and reveals half a million dollars in cash, guns and fake passports hidden in the walls. Things escalate – not sure if the length of the monologue cuts the setup here? More secrets emerge, Chappelle says there’s no time to explain, even mercy kills the dog. Fun resolution.

Musical guest – GloRilla

Joining Chappelle as musical guest is rapper GloRilla. The multi-platinum selling artist received two Grammy nominations for his hit “Yeah Glo!” The Memphis/crunk song is from her second mixtape Ehhthang Ehhthang which came out last year. Fun energy.

“Weekend Update”

Huge applause and cheers welcome our favorite anchors. They jump into the inauguration, as well as President Biden’s farewell. Colin Jost lands a brutal joke on Mark Zuckerberg, while Michael Che notes that the inauguration is on MLK Jr. Day.

TikTok is getting banned in the US (at least temporarily) – and Michael Longfellow is coming on to argue why the app should stay on. He dryly addresses the criticism and how the app has distorted his habits. His attention is shot and misinformation is everywhere.

Jost introduces a new segment, “Hear Me Out,” that tackles a new AI law in California. He does some accent work tonight that confuses and worries Che.

The original Nosferatu (Sherman) comes out to talk about the new movie. Fans of Sherman’s Letterboxd know that she is a huge body horror fan! She beats the current Nosferatu body – way too jacked! (For fans of SNL vampire humor check out how John Travolta’s Dracula (and his eccentric behavior led to a humorous misunderstanding in the ’90s.) Lots of meme-worthy moments here, I guess. They end tonight with a message to support fire relief in LA

Back to the inauguration – when Jerry Minor was in the cast, the same day George Bush was inaugurated as president, Mena Suvari was the host. As part of the “Weekend Update”, Minor made a comment as Al Sharpton: “I did him a couple of times with Darrell doing Jesse Jackson … it was a lot of fun to do. There’s a lot of references in there that are just from 2000, popular songs that nobody would remember now – one of those things that could only be written then.” (He performs OutKast and Limp Bizkit songs.) “I think I wrote it the day before, that Friday because of what was going on that week. That’s the nature of Saturday Night Live. And when you see it now, it’s kind of funny – he’s doing Sharpton. But then at that point … it was just a completely different feeling.”

Former cast member Victoria Jackson watched tonight and shares: “Super funny TikTok segment on Update by Michael Longfellow.”

“Police station”

A man’s girlfriend has gone missing and police want a physical description to outline what she looks like to be found. When they ask for her weight, he (Devon Walker) pauses – janitor Dwayne (Kenan Thompson) warns it’s a trap. The two men communicate covertly to avoid answering questions. No Chappelle role, wonder what happens to that. He couldn’t play Dwayne?

Musical guest – GloRilla

Another fun show! But bad lip sync?

“Pop the Balloon”

This is a fun, modern format – in a parody of social media dating shows, women hit contestants with balloons. SNL existing in digital setups, not traditional game programs, is smart. That’s how people watch these shows, so that should be a current.

Legendary The Chappelle Show pimp Silky Johnson appears, complete with Donnell Rawlings. Wow, Ashy Larry is joining in too! Fun to see these old characters here – not as surprising or clever as though House of the Dragon short.

Final thoughts

• Thanks Jerry Minor. Keep your eyes peeled for his new podcast, Playing in the back of the roomwhich should drop sometime in the next few weeks.
• FYI: Happy MLK holiday, folks. Minor notes that the MLK episode during his season was hosted by Charlie Sheen, who he became somewhat friends with on 8H. (“Very very nice guy … He told me a lot of things that I probably can’t repeat!”
• What did you think? Vote here. Lots of technical fouls tonight, right?