As he prepped this week to host Saturday Night Live for the first time in his career, Dave Chappelle worked out standup sets at the Cutting Room in New York.
On Friday, he decided to weigh in on the 2016 election by ripping Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, calling her “not right” and defending her Republican counterpart Donald Trump.
Chappelle said he voted early in his home of Yellow Springs, Ohio, claiming he “didn’t feel good” about choosing Clinton, comparing it to a hypothetical situation in which he would still have sex with Halle Berry even if she farted in his face. “[Clinton] is going to be on a coin someday,” he said. “And her behavior has not been coin-worthy. She’s not right, and we all know she’s not right.”
The Observer noted that Chappelle “shocked the crowd” with those comments and reportedly spent much of his 60-minute set blasting Clinton. He also seemed to give Trump a break for his comments on the leaked Hollywood Access tape.
“What I heard on that tape was gross,” Chappelle said. “But the way I got to hear it was even more gross. You know that came directly from Hillary.”
It should be noted that there’s been no link between the leaked tape and the Clinton campaign, but that didn’t stop Chappelle from defending Trump’s comments, especially when the Republican nominee claimed that he could grab women “by the pussy” with no consequences.
Said Chappelle: “Sexual assault? It wasn’t. He said, ‘And when you’re a star, they let you do it.’ That phrase implies consent. I just don’t like the way the media twisted that whole thing. Nobody questioned it.”
Of course, Chappelle is a comedian. This all could be a big joke. Maybe he’s setting all of us up for a turn when he performs his SNL monologue.
After all, he liked Bill Clinton.
And he once called Trump a “White Malcolm X.”
Either way, Chappelle’s rant began going viral on Saturday afternoon, only a week before he takes the SNL stage in what producers hope is a highly-rated show. The timing is not necessarily a coincidence.
H/T Observer