Will Heath/NBC(NEW YORK) — Saturday Night Live‘s first episode since Donald Trump’s surprise victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election tackled the anxiety over the president-elect, while poking fun at Clinton supporters stunned by the results.
In a rare break from its usual format, the show opened with cast member Kate McKinnon’s Clinton, paying tribute to the Democratic candidate as well as songwriter Leonard Cohen, who died last week. Seated at a piano on an otherwise bare stage, McKinnon played and sang Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
“I’m not giving up and neither should you,” she declared at the song’s end.
Guest host Dave Chappelle, making a rare TV appearance, performed a 12-minute monologue in which he joked about a “white riot” by angry Cinton voters in Portland, Oregon: “[The] news said they did a thousand dollars worth of damage, every black person was watching it like, ‘Amateurs.'”
Chappelle later recalled a White House party with an all-African-American guest list, noting it made him feel “proud to be an American” and “happy about the prospects of our country.”
“So, in that spirit,” he continued, “I’m wishing Donald Trump luck. And I’m going to give him a chance. And we, the historically disenfranchised, demand that he give us one, too.”
There were some lighter moments, including a Chappelle’s Show/The Walking Dead mash-up where Chappelle — as Walking Dead villain Negan — chooses which character from his old Comedy Central show to murder. In the end, it’s crackhead Tyrone Biggums who gets decapitated by Negan’s bat.
SNL alumnus Chris Rock and Chappelle also played the black guests at an election night party of white Clinton supporters who become increasingly panic-stricken while watching her lose.
The episode delivered the season’s highest ratings so far and its best since December 2013, when Jimmy Fallon hosted and Justin Timberlake was the musical guest.
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