Counting on Who?
Comic Dave Chappelle broad-brushes American support for Donald Trump on Inauguration Eve Eve
When comedian Dave Chappelle took the stage last weekend for Saturday Night Live I expected nothing short of brilliance, sure, racially irreverent, controversial, even politically incorrect, but also laugh out loud brilliant. An acquired taste for most centrists, for sure, while virtue signalling, woke interventionists squirm with each punch line.
An equal opportunity Richard Pryor/George Carlin hybrid, Chappelle has deliberately ambushed transphobia, antisemitism, whiteness, Blackness, rich, poor, you name it, but he is not mean spirited. His unfiltered Netflix swipes at cancel culture can be just as insensitive, yet unabashedly humorous, with a viewership in the millions. In short, I am not being mean-spirited either when I say he is funny as hell.
Despite a career laced with wide-ranging accolades and crafted controversies, Dave Chappelle misfired with his opening monologue on SNL by broad-brushing American expectations, then closing with an inaugural admonition for Donald J. Trump that raised eyebrows, my own included.
"The presidency is no place for petty people," adding, "So, Donald Trump, I know you watch the show. Man, remember, people, whether they voted for you or not, they are all counting on you. Whether they like you or not, they are all counting on you. The whole world is counting on you. People, whether they voted for you or not, they are all counting on you.”
Whether people voted for you or not? Whether they like you or not…they’re all counting on you? Really?
Come on, Dave, I can’t say as I like Trump or not. I just refuse to let him take up space in my head. But I do know, after the killing swath of Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump 1.0 and Biden, with its collateral damage at home and abroad, too many of us have totally given up counting on any semblance of U.S. leadership. Too many illegal, unwanted wars - interventionist, proxy or otherwise - government censorship, mass surveillance, perpetual deference to Big Pharma, Wall Street and Pentagon profiteers, have all resulted in spiraling American expectations, my own included.
To wrap up, a well-meaning Chappelle then added:
"I mean this when I say this, good luck. Please, do better next time. Please, all of us, do better next time. Do not forget your humanity, and please have empathy for displaced people, whether they are in the Palisades or Palestine."
While not necessarily a mic drop, with the Santa Ana winds still stoking L.A. wildfires and IDF snipers still killing Palestinian children in Rafah, ceasefire or not, maybe Dave Chappelle should have read the room…and quit while he was ahead.