Saturday Night Live writers boycott Dave Chappelle hosting the show this weekend, reheating backlash over his transphobic jokes.
This time last year, Dave Chappelle was deep in drama over his Netflix special The Closer. Members of the LGBT community called out Chappelle for his transphobic and homophobic jokes in the special. Not only was Dave caught in the drama, but Netflix faced backlash from its very own employees who walked out in protest even with Dave offering to meet with them. Many saw his comments as doubling down and of course, Dave didn’t back down. Dave often compared the LGBT movement to the quest of black people to become free.
“We Blacks,” he says, “we look at the gay community and we go … ‘Look how well that movement is going. Look how well you are doing. And we’ve been trapped in this predicament for hundreds of years. How … are you making that kind of progress?’ I can’t help but feel like if slaves had baby oil and booty shorts, we might have been free a hundred years sooner.”
Saturday Night Live Writers Boycott Over Dave Chappelle Hosting Post Mid-Terms Show
It appears time has not healed all bad blood over Dave Chappelle’s remarks. The comedian is booked to host Saturday Night Live’s post-election show like he has the past two presidential elections. According to PageSix, this isn’t sitting well with the SNL writers. An insider revealed writers are reportedly not doing the show, but none of the actors on the show are joining them in the boycott. Dave Chappelle’s representative disputed the boycott saying the writers’ meetings have been fine.
“The room was full of writers. They all pitched ideas and they seemed very excited about it…. Dave is looking to have some fun,” the source told PageSix.
Boycotting and allowing Dave and others to write the show for you probably isn’t the best idea. If the boycott is indeed true SNL could turn into a new episode of The Chappelle Show, which wouldn’t be a bad thing for a the very stale product.