Dave Chappelle and Bowen Yang have as soon as once more shared the Saturday Night Live stage — and this time, it regarded considerably much less awkward.

Within the closing few moments of the Jan. 18 episode, which marked Chappelle's fourth time internet hosting the present, a number of SNL forged members and musical visitor GloRilla joined the comic on stage to bid the viewers farewell. Through the goodbyes, Chappelle and Yang briefly hugged.

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The second marked their first onscreen interplay of the night time, as Yang didn’t seem in any sketches with Chappelle, and it adopted the comic's shock look on the sketch comedy final January.

Eagle-eyed followers have been stunned to identify the Chappelle Present star within the crowd for the ultimate goodnights throughout that 2024 Dakota Johnson–hosted episode. The truth that Yang stood on the alternative finish of the stage from Chappelle together with his arms crossed — as proven in awkward footage and photographs that surfaced on-line — left some viewers speculating that he was distancing himself from the controversial comic. Yang addressed the space a couple of months later, saying that was not the case.

"I stand the place I at all times stand on [goodnights]," Yang instructed Variety in June. "It was not a bodily distance that anybody was creating. It needed to do with so many issues that have been fully inside."

When requested if Chappelle’s look made him sad, Yang replied, "It was about different folks's response within the present. I used to be simply confused, that was it."

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Chappelle sparked controversy after his 2021 Netflix stand-up particular, The Nearer, during which he made jokes concerning the transgender neighborhood. LGBTQ+ advocacy teams condemned his rhetoric, and Netflix workers staged a walkout to protest the present. Chappelle final hosted SNL the next yr, and afterward the nationwide director of the Anti-Defamation League criticized his monologue for "popularizing" antisemitism.

On this weekend's episode, Chappelle delivered a 17-minute monologue and admitted that he was reluctant to return as host given his tendency to fire up controversy. He added that SNL boss Lorne Michaels needed to persuade him to kick off the primary present of the New Yr, joking, "The second I mentioned sure, L.A. burst into flames!"

He added, "I'm uninterested in being controversial. I'm attempting to show over a brand new leaf."

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After Chappelle mentioned it’s "approach too quickly" to crack jokes concerning the wildfires that destroyed acres of land in Los Angeles, he proceeded to seek out humor within the tragedy anyway, even poking enjoyable on the metropolis's queer neighborhood.

"I'm certain there have been some arsonists," Chappelle mentioned of the reason for the fires. "However there have been a number of parts that got here collectively to make this hearth the disaster that it was. The wind was 100 miles an hour, L.A. was dry as a bone, and the levees… It was simply too many elements."

Then he quipped, "Should you have been a rational pondering particular person, it’s a must to at the very least take into account the likelihood that God hates these folks… Sodomites!" Pausing for laughs, he added, "And that's not true as a result of West Hollywood was unscathed… As a result of how will you burn what’s already flaming?"

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