Comedian Dave Chappelle opened his hosting duties on Saturday Night Live with a monologue sympathizing with Kyrie Irving and Kanye West in the midst of their antisemitism controversies.
About four minutes into his set, Chappelle waded into the mess NBA star Kyrie Irving got himself into last week when he was suspended for posting a link of social media to a movie blasted as antisemitic.
“Kanye got in so much trouble Kyrie got in trouble,” Chappelle said as he broached the topic.
“Kyrie Irving posted a link to a movie that he’d seen on Amazon,” Chappelle explained. “No caption on the post or nothing like that, but apparently this movie had some, I don’t know, antisemitic tropes or something. It was some weird title like ‘From Hebrew to Negro’ or something.”
The film is premised on the unproven “Black Hebrew Israelite” conspiracy theory that black Americans are the true descendants of Israelites in the Bible, and modern-day Israelis and Jewish Americans have stolen their ethnic identity.
Chappelle continued saying, “And the NBA told him he should apologize and he was slow to apologize. And the list of demands to get back into their good graces got longer and longer and this is where, you know, I draw the line.”
“I know the Jewish people have been through terrible things all over the world, but you can’t blame that on Black Americans. You just can’t. You know what I mean?” he said.
“Kyrie Irving’s black ass was nowhere near the Holocaust. In fact, he’s not even certain it exists,” Chappelle quipped.
Chappelle has been under fire for his jokes about transgenderism and when it was announced that he was set to host the weekend comedy show, it was reported that several writers and cast members were boycotting the episode and refusing to participate in its production.
But Chappelle’s team disputed that claim.
“We’ve seen nothing to support media reports of a writer’s boycott. In fact, the writers delivered over 40 sketches for Dave’s consideration and collaboration. Just as during Dave’s past SNL appearances, you won’t want to miss it!” a Chappelle rep told CNN.
Chappelle also joked that lower income whites love Trump because he is an “honest liar” and added that in the first debates with Hillary back in 2016, Trump admitted that the system was rigged because he uses it! White people, Chappelle said, never saw anyone admit it like that, and he understands why so many love Trump.
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