If you tuned in to Saturday Night Live this past weekend looking for goofy comic relief to sooth your pain after the week’s shock election of Republican Donald J. Trump to the office of president, then you picked the wrong episode.
But you got something even better than goofy comedy. You got art.
Rather than the traditional sketch cold open, the night started with Kate McKinnon sitting alone at a piano in her Hillary Clinton character. She then performed a moving rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” You knew this show was going to be, well, special.
What followed was a sometimes somber, sometimes hilarious opening monologue from the show’s guest host, Dave Chappelle. It was as big on philosophy as it was on comedy. After about 10 minutes of classic Dave Chappelle joke-telling genius, he told America a story. This is the story he told:
“A few weeks ago I went to the White House for a party. It was the first time I’ve been there in many years and it was very exciting. And BET sponsored the party, so everyone there was black. And it was beautiful. I walked through the gates — you know, I’m from Washington, so I saw the bus stop, or the corner where the bus stop used to be, where I used to catch the bus to school and dream about nights like tonight.
It was a really, really beautiful night. At the end of the night everyone went into the West Wing of the White House and it was a huge party. And everybody in there was black — except for Bradley Cooper, for some reason.
And on the walls were pictures of all the presidents, of the past. Now, I’m not sure if this is true, but to my knowledge the first black person that was officially invited to the White House was Frederick Douglass. They stopped him at the gates. Abraham Lincoln had to walk out himself and escort Frederick Douglass into the White House, and it didn’t happen again, as far as I know, until Roosevelt was president. Roosevelt was president, he had a black guy over and got so much flack from the media that he literally said, ‘I will never have a n—-r in this house again.’
I thought about that, and I looked at that black room, and saw all those black faces, and Bradley, and I saw how happy everybody was. These people who had been historically disenfranchised. It made me feel hopeful and it made me feel proud to be an American and it made me very happy about the prospects of our country.
So, in that spirit, 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. Thank you very much.”
This is what happens when comedy transforms into art. It is good tonic for the soul.
Take the time to watch this monologue if you haven’t already:
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
