Dave Chappelle’s return to television couldn’t have gone better.
The November 12th episode of Saturday Night Live was in top form with host Chappelle and musical guest A Tribe Called Quest. Chappelle’s return to television had many people excited, and drew in quite crowd for SNL with the season’s highest ratings so far.
Chappelle’s monologue was one of the major highlights of the night, with the comedian hitting on topics from the election to mass shootings. Chappelle peppered his hilarious monologue with some language that isn’t exactly network friendly. At one point Chappelle even apologized to Lorne Michaels, which is probably smart considering how many people have been banned from SNL for smaller things. The language didn’t seem to ruffle any feathers, though as Deadline reports it was censored at some local NBC affiliates.
The sketches throughout the night kept pace with the monologue, with the election night and Walking Dead sketches being particular stand-outs. The election night sketch was in part memorable because of Chris Rock’s sudden guest appearance on the show alongside Chappelle.
The Walking Dead sketch was a very funny bit of meta humor, showing Chappelle as Negan killing off some of his famous characters from Chappelle’s Show like Lil Jon and Tyrone Biggums.
Saturday Night Live has been on a roll so far in its 42nd season and seems to show no signs of slowing down post-election.