When Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live last month, his opening monologue was refreshingly free of his now-characteristic anti-trans “jokes.” The comedian now claims that’s because the show’s producers wouldn’t let him mention trans people.

According to SF Gate, during a February 13 performance at San Francisco’s Masonic Auditorium, Chappelle said that ahead of his January 18 appearance on SNL, the show’s producers told him that two topics were off limits: trans people and Gaza. In his review of the Masonic set, SF Gate’s Dan Gentile described the directive as “a shocking stroke of censorship, given the political nature of [Chappelle’s SNL] monologue,” noting that the comedian did close with a plea for empathy for Palestinians.

Related

Man who attacked Dave Chappelle is now suing security for not protecting him
The 25-year-old man claims security guards and the comedian’s entourage beat him “ruthlessly.”

In recent years, Chappelle himself has not expressed much empathy for trans people. In his 2021 Netflix special, The Closer, the comedian defended J.K. Rowling for her frequent transphobic comments and described himself as a TERF—a “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.” The special received widespread criticism and led to Netflix employees staging a walkout in protest.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Chappelle responded to the backlash by doubling down on his anti-trans rhetoric, continuing to spew anti-trans misinformation and talking points in subsequent Netflix specials.

But that hasn’t stopped SNL from continuing to invite him back to host. The show drew criticism in the run-up to his November 2022 appearance, with Page Six erroneously reporting at the time that multiple writers on the show were refusing to work on the episode.

Earlier this month, Vulture reported that SNL creator Lorne Michaels allowed one staff writer who is nonbinary to sit out Chappelle’s 2022 appearance on the show. According to the outlet, which spoke to multiple anonymous sources close to Michaels for the story, Chappelle included a joke about the nonbinary writer in the opening monologue he delivered during the episode’s dress rehearsal.

“The papers got it wrong,” Chappelle reportedly said, referring to the Page Six report. “Only one person has a problem, but the paper got confused because that person is a they.”

Vulture reported that SNL cast members and writers sent “angry texts” to Michaels and other producers saying that allowing Chappelle to make the joke made them feel “betrayed.” Vulture’s sources said that Michaels urged Chappelle to cut the joke not because it was transphobic, but because including it in the live broadcast would damage relationships with SNL’s cast.   

In his most recent Netflix special, The Dreamer, Chappelle claimed that he was done talking about trans people — despite making several transphobic jabs throughout. According to SF Gate, his February 13 set did not include any anti-trans content.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.