Dave Chappelle tackles Trump, Diddy and LA Fires in ‘SNL’ monologue

Dave Chappelle started Saturday Night Live‘s first episode of 2025 with a bang covering everything from the LA wildfires to Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration and the long list of accusations against Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Saturday was Chappelle’s fourth time hosting, this time with musical guest GloRilla. The comedian has previously appeared in notable post-election episodes, with his previous hosts taking place in November 2016, 2020 and 2022; this time, he appeared on the show just two days before Trump’s second inauguration.

Walking out on stage smoking a cigarette, Chappelle told the crowd SNL Boss Lorne Michaels had asked him to host the first episode after the 2024 election, but he had said no because “It’s going well, I finished my Netflix deal, I have all this money and stuff.” After Michaels pressed, Chappelle told him to save the date closer to January 6th. When the new date rolled around, the comedian said he still didn’t want to host, but finally agreed since “I can get rid of all these old Trump jokes and start fresh, so you know what, I do it.”

“The minute I said yes, LA went up in flames,” Chappelle joked, noting that it’s “way too early to make jokes about a disaster like that” to laughs from the crowd, adding that this one “hits close to home ” as so many friends lost their homes.

“And then I go on the Internet and I see these fire videos and I read the comment sections and everyone says, ‘Yeah, it’s serving these celebrities right, I hope their houses burn down,'” he reflected. “And you see that? That right there, that’s why I hate poor people, because they can’t see past their own pain.” He also pondered the theory that the fires were started by arsonists, acknowledging LA’s high winds and dry hills, but “if you were a rational-thinking person, at least consider the theory that God hates these people. Sodomites .And it’s natural because West Hollywood was unscathed, because how can you burn what was already burning?”

Chappelle also touched on the Luigi Mangione case and Trump said immigrants were eating dogs and cats in Ohio — where he lives — before diving into a conversation about Diddy’s arrest.

“I’ve been in a lot of trouble in my day, but this guy Puffy, oh mate, this guy’s in a hell of a lot of trouble; I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it,” he said, explaining that his friends have asked if he knew anything about Diddy’s freak-off parties. “They’d be like, ‘Well, how were all these people you know at the freak-off and you were the only one not at the freak-off?’ And I thought about it for a minute and I said, oh my God, that was a hard way to find out. Can you imagine if you were me reading the paper and finding out that everyone in the Hollywood had an orgy behind your back? None of you called me?”

Chappelle joked that he does, however, “have energy. I look like I want to tell,” adding that with Diddy being 55 and “you got a thousand bottles of baby oil in the house, can’t stop don’t stop. You have commit to the lifestyle.”

He then turned to politics, reflecting on the recent death of Jimmy Carter and how moved he was that Carter once visited Palestine with little security. “When I saw that picture, I got tears in my eyes. I said I don’t know if he’s a good president, but right there I’m sure he’s a great man. It made me feel very proud.”

“The presidency is not a place for small people. Donald Trump, I know you watch the show — man, remember, whether people voted for you or not, they’re all counting on you,” he continued. “Whether they like you or not, they’re all counting on you. The whole world is counting on you. And I mean this when I say this: good luck. Do better next time. Please all of us, do better next time time. Don’t forget your humanity and please have empathy for displaced people, whether they are in the Palisades or Palestine.”

To continue SNLs historic 50th season — which will be celebrated with a three-hour primetime special set for Feb. 16 — Timothée Chalamet will serve as both host and musical guest on the Jan. 25 show, presumably performing Bob Dylan covers in the wake of his performance as the music legend in the A complete unknown.