Dave Chappelle says he “fondly” remembers his 2016 monologue on “Saturday Night Live,” which was recorded mere days after Donald Trump was elected president for the first time, even if others may have concerns about how well the speech has aged.
The standup comedian, who included words of hope as Trump prepared to take the White House for the first time, has delivered similarly thoughtful “SNL” sets following former President Joe Biden’s win in 2020 and ahead of Trump’s recent inauguration.
Chappelle has avoided interviews since the barrage of anti-transgender jokes in his 2021 Netflix special “The Closer” divided viewers, but recently sat down for a Variety “Actors on Actors” chat with fellow comic Mo Amer — in which he stood by his 2016 monologue about Trump.
“I haven’t watched it in a while, but I remember it fondly,” Chappelle said in the video published Wednesday.
The comedian delivered a cautiously hopeful monologue at the time and said he’d give Trump “a chance” if he gave “the historically disenfranchised” one, too, as Amer, a Palestinian comic he grew close to during the COVID-19 pandemic, reminded him in the video.
“Oh, I remember that part,” Chappelle said. “You know what? I look at it like a photograph. That’s what it felt like in that moment. Now, if it ages well or not, I don’t get mad if I look at a picture because it’s not today. That’s what it was at that time.”
“You might look at an old set and cringe, but you could just cringe because of how you were at that time,” he continued.
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Chappelle certainly didn’t praise Trump at the time, however, and said plainly that “an internet troll” had won the White House. He also touched on Trump’s alleged sexual assaults, and how different he felt after former President Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
“And it made me very happy about the prospects of our country,” Chappelle said in 2016 of seeing Obama in the White House. “So, 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.”
Trump went on to impose a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries during his first term and later refused to concede the 2020 election after losing to Joe Biden. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has launched mass deportations — and he imposed a brand-new travel ban Wednesday against a dozen nations.