People Are Threatening to Boycott SNL Over Next Host

Dave Chappelle hosted the Saturday Night Live episodes that aired the Saturdays after the 2016 and 2020 elections—and, despite the fact that he's recently become quite controversial, the comedian is returning to do the same after Tuesday's election. Chappelle, who has remained unapologetic after coming under fire for homophobic and transphobic jokes made in his 2021 Netflix special The Closer, will host SNL on Saturday, the show confirmed. Rap duo Black Star is the musical guest, Variety reports. Pitchfork notes that in his 2016 monologue after Donald Trump won the presidential election, Chappelle urged America to give the real estate mogul a chance, then later admitted that advice was a mistake.

Not surprisingly, the news of Chappelle's return to SNL was met with dismay in some corners, the New York Post reports. One tongue-in-cheek tweet from trans Netflix ex-employee Terra Field, who was one of the first to raise issues with the Chappelle special: "Wait I thought I cancelled him. Is it possible cancel culture isn’t a real thing??" There's plenty more where that came from, including quite a few people announcing they're done with SNL over this, and many commenters simply replying to the show's tweeted announcement with an image of Don Cheadle wearing a "Protect Trans Kids" shirt on the show in 2019. Of course, responses on the other side were also easy to find. (More Dave Chappelle stories.)