‘SNL’ replaces Dave Chappelle as regular host after election

Although Dave Chappelle has been the favorite to host Saturday Night Live‘s first post-election episode since 2016, this time the late-night show is going in a different direction, with comedian Bill Burr tapped to host its November 9 return.

Chappelle takes SNL phase after an election became a kind of tradition, but for unknown reasons, SNL Boss Lorne Michaels is switching up the show’s ritual, replacing Chappelle as it prepares to follow the most consequential presidential election in American history.

All three of Chappelle’s hosting concerts at SNL came the weekend after major elections. In 2016, following Donald Trump’s victory in the White House, he famously said, “I didn’t know Donald Trump was going to win the election,” but he “suspected it” because “I know the whites.”

In 2020, right after Joe Biden’s victory, Chappelle delivered one longer than usual monologueas he celebrated Trump’s loss as “a pretty incredible day” but believed his ouster did not automatically mean a “safer America.” These two performances won him Emmys for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

But in 2022, immediately after the midterm elections that year, Chappelle landed in hot water for making antisemitic comments in defense of Kanye West. By then Chappelle had also dug into his leans on his comedic material about transgender people during several Netflix offers.

More SNL authors reportedly boycotted his return to the showalthough a show representative said there was “no evidence” that anyone sat out the episode for that reason.

Now, some LGBTQ+ rights advocates celebrate that Chappelle is out this year and thus “will not spend 20 minutes five days after the election attacking trans people after the swing states have been inundated with anti-trans ads for the last two or three months.”

However, Chappelle’s replacement Bill Burr is not without controversy himself. A month before Chappelle hosted for the second time in 2020, Burr was criticized for making homophobic comments in his monologue, where he went after cancel culture, “wokeness,” and pretended not to know what Gay Pride month was in New York.

His jokes didn’t land on stage and drew comments from social media users who called it “the worst SNL monologue I’ve seen for years.”

But perhaps in an attempt to keep things balanced, Lorne Michaels has booked Charli XCX, who was one of Kamala Harris’ first celebrity boosters, as both host and musical guest the following Saturday, November 16.