On SNL, Dave Chappelle makes a plea for empathy: “Whether they’re in the Palisades or Palestine”

Chappelle came on Diddy and his hurt feelings at realizing why he’d never been invited to a Freak Off party: “Oh my god, I’m ugly!” Also, “If you really study my face, I clearly have spunk.” Chappelle knew he was losing the audience a bit when he began riffing on the rap mogul’s baby oil consumption while pausing to tap his microphone. He turned back to the fires, thinking that if Diddy hadn’t been caught, there would be a mushroom cloud over his house with all that baby oil.

Then Chappelle rose from his stool, his voice waxing lyrical. This Diddy nonsense, what does it mean when Monday rolls around – and half of us want to spend the day with our fingers in our ears, facing away from the screen while the die-hard MAGA warriors stand outside in the freezing DC cold? On the day Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States, flags will be, or should be, at half-mast for Jimmy Carter. And here was the surprise hero of Chappelle’s monologue. He described being in the Middle East when Carter visited Israel and decided, against Israel’s wishes, to visit the Palestinian Territory. “I’ll never forget the images of a former American president walking with little or no security while thousands of Palestinians cheered him on… I don’t know if that’s a good president, but right there I’m sure is a great man.” How’s that for a tribute?

“So Donald Trump, I know you watch the show” – and here Chappelle flashed his wry grin. “Man, remember whether people voted for you or not, they’re all counting on you.” These words seem trite on paper, but Chappelle delivered them so sincerely and with real earnestness. “Good luck. Please do better next time. Please all of us, do better next time.” I don’t know that Trump is capable of shame, but this is certainly a better response to him than denial or cheap, ineffective mockery.

“Yeah, it’s serving these celebrities right,” Chappelle said at the beginning of his monologue, mimicking people grappling with the LA fires: “I hope their houses burn down.” He paused and prepared to flip the script. “You see, that. That’s why I hate poor people. Because they cannot see past their own pain.”

“Don’t forget your humanity and please have empathy for displaced people, whether they are in the Palisades or Palestine,” he said, completing his circle. Looking past our own pain may be what gets us through the next four years and allows for something more real and better in the future. Finally, Chappelle wished the crowd good night. At the time he remembered the work at hand – to introduce the musical guest GloRilla and promises a great show ahead – we had already cut to commercials. Lorne Michaels was right. What we really needed was someone we trusted to make some sense out of the world and then tell us good night and good luck.