Dave Chapelle says SNL writers were in tears after Trump's 2016 win
Comedian Dave Chappelle said in a new interview posted Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s election win in 2016 emotionally broke the writers for NBC’s "Saturday Night Live."
Chappelle sat down with fellow comedian Mo Amer as part of Variety’s "Actors on Actors" program, where they discussed Chappelle hosting the long-running series the weekend after Trump’s shocking first victory.
"Man, when they called Donald Trump the winner, that s--- shut the writers’ room down. You should have seen them in there," Chappelle said. "Boy, they was crying … They couldn’t believe that this was happening."
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"I knew it the whole time," Amer remarked of Trump's win.
"Yeah, because you live in Texas and I live in Ohio, but at 30 Rock, it looked like Hillary Clinton was going to win. I don’t know what looks different from those windows," Chappelle said. "But yeah, man, it surprised me."
During the interview, Amer asked Chappelle how he felt about his 2016 SNL monologue nearly nine years later. Chappelle revealed he hadn’t watched it recently but remembered it "fondly." Amer pointed out that during the monologue, he spoke about giving Trump a chance.
"Oh, I remember that part. But 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," Chappelle said.
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Chappelle’s post-election SNL appearances have become a tradition of sorts; he hosted in 2020 only hours after the presidential race was called for former President Joe Biden. He most recently hosted the long-running show in January, the Saturday before Trump’s second inauguration.