Dave Chappelle Asks Trump to Have Empathy for “Displaced People, Whether They’re in the Palisades or Palestine,” in ‘SNL’ Monologue
Dave Chappelle started off Saturday Night Live‘s first episode of 2025 with a bang, addressing everything from the L.A. wildfires to Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration and the long list of allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Saturday marked Chappelle’s fourth time hosting, this time alongside musical guest GloRilla. The comedian has previously appeared in notable post-election episodes, with his prior hosting stints taking place in November 2016, 2020 and 2022; this time, he joined the show just two days before Trump’s second inauguration.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Walking out onstage while smoking a cigarette, Chappelle told the crowd that SNL boss Lorne Michaels had asked him to host the first episode after the 2024 election, but he had said no because “Things are going good, I finished my Netflix deal, I have all this money and stuff.” After Michaels pushed, Chappelle told him to save the date closest to Jan. 6. When the new date rolled around, the comedian said he still didn’t want to host but finally agreed as “I can get rid of all these old Trump jokes and start fresh, so you know what, I’ll do it.
“The moment I said yes, L.A. burst into flames,” Chappelle joked, noting it’s “way too soon to make jokes about a catastrophe like that” to laughs from the crowd, adding this one “hits close to home,” as so many friends lost their homes.
“And then I go on the internet and I watch these fire videos and I read the comments sections and everyone’s like, ‘Yeah it serves 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 mused about the theory that the fires were started by arsonists, acknowledging L.A.’s high winds and dry hills but “if you were a rational thinking person, you have to at least consider the theory that God hates these people. Sodomites. And that’s natural because West Hollywood was unscathed, because how can you burn what was already flaming?”
Chappelle also touched on the Luigi Mangione case and Trump saying 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 buddy, this guy is in an enormous amount of trouble; I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this,” he said, while 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 who wasn’t at the freak-off?’ And I thought about it for a minute and I said, ‘Oh my God — I’m ugly.’ That was a tough way to find that out. Can you imagine if you were me reading the newspaper and found out everyone in Hollywood had an orgy behind your back? None of y’all called me?”
Chappelle joked that he does, however, “have snitch energy. I look like I’ll tell,” and added that with Diddy being 55 and “you’ve got 1,000 bottles of baby oil in the house, can’t stop won’t stop. You’ve committed to the lifestyle.”
He then turned to politics, reflecting on Jimmy Carter’s recent death and how moved he was by Carter once visiting Palestine with little security. “When I saw that picture, it brought tears to my eyes. I said, ‘I don’t know if that’s a good president, but that right there, I am sure, is a great man.’ It made me feel very proud.
“The presidency is no place for petty 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. Please do better next time. Please all of us, do better next time. Do not forget your humanity and please have empathy for displaced people, whether they’re in the Palisades or Palestine.”
To continue SNL‘s 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 A Complete Unknown.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
Sign up for THR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
