Dave Chappelle Strikes Out Against SNL
While guest-starring on Joe Rogan's podcast, Dave Chappelle slammed the "Saturday Night Live" cast for criticizing Elon Musk's recent hosting gig. The Tesla CEO appeared on the NBC show on May 8, where he took part in a Mario Bros.-inspired sketch and opened up about having Asperger's syndrome in his monologue.
When NBC announced Musk as an upcoming host in late April, some of the "SNL" cast showed their disappointment on social media. For example, Bowen Yang replied to one of Musk's tweets, on which the multi-billionaire vowed to find out how "live" SNL was. "What the f**k does that even mean," Yang wrote on his Instagram Story, followed by a frowning emoji.
Meanwhile, comedian Aidy Bryant subtly took a dig at Musk by reposting a Bernie Sanders tweet calling the 50 richest people of America and their wealth a "moral obscenity." Andrew Dismukes even took to Instagram Stories to announce that the only CEO he wants to do a sketch with is Cheri Oteri, a former "SNL" cast member from the '90s (via CNBC).
Chappelle, however, doesn't seem to agree with all the Elon Musk criticism.
Dave Chappelle commented on 'woke' culture while discussing Elon's SNL gig
On "The Joe Rogan Experience" (which aired on May 7), Dave Chappelle and the host agreed that the cast shouldn't be mad at Elon Musk hosting "Saturday Night Live," and blamed woke culture for all the criticism. "No one is woke enough," Rogan said (via New York Post). "They don't, they can't appreciate the fact that you're dealing with literally one of the most brilliant men that's ever lived that's gonna come do your show."
Chappelle seemed to agree, although admitted to being torn: "Again like you say, no one can be woke enough. I'm torn because I like a warrior for a good cause but I'm really into tactics."
"You're not gonna nag people into behaving in a way that's — in fact, if you continue with this tone, even if you're right, you'll be very hard to hear," he continued. Elsewhere in the episode, Chappelle discussed meeting Musk years ago: "I teased him about being the richest man in the world. He took it with good humor." However, it wasn't the first time the two met. "We hung out on a tour bus, and he says to me that night ... 'I met you before.' I'm like, 'Well, I have no recollection.' He looked kinda hurt," he recalled.
Someone Chappelle did remember meeting before they became a very popular Hollywood star? "Idris Elba," he shared (via Deadline), "The famous actor, used to be a security guard at [comedy club] Caroline's ... I used to buy weed from him."