Dave Chappelle's 'SNL' Monologue Draws Ire of Anti-Defamation League

Dave Chappelle included some fierce commentary on Kanye West and antiSemitism in his monologue on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and some Jewish leaders were not amused. The Anti-Defamation League's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted his outrage at Chappelle and at SNL producers for hiring him. The ADL itself has not commented on Chappelle's performance.

"We shouldn't expect [Dave Chappelle] to serve as society's moral compass, but disturbing to see [SNL] not just normalize but popularize antiSemitism," Greenblatt wrote. "Why aren't Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?" His tweet sparked heated debates in the comments and quote-tweets, but so far neither Chappelle nor SNL have responded directly to his comments.

Chappelle ostensibly tried to toe the line in his opening monologue on Saturday, but he courted controversy simply by tackling this topic. After directly denouncing antiSemitism with some tongue-in-cheek punchlines, he said: "I've been to Hollywood – no one get mad at me – I'm just telling you what I saw: it's a lot of Jews. Like a lot. But that doesn't mean anything! You know what I mean? Because there are a lot of Black people in Ferguson, Missouri, it doesn't mean we run the place."

From there, Chappelle got more contentious by saying that a conspiracy theory about Jewish people manipulating the media is "not a crazy thing to think," while joking that "it's a crazy thing to say out loud." He made several jokes saying that West's only real mistake in the last few weeks was to speak about these theories so publicly and bluntly. Finally, he made a joke that many critics condemned as a dog whistle to racist and antiSemitic people, and a perfect soundbite for bigoted groups to use.

"You know, the rules of perception," Chappelle said. "If they're Black, then it's a gang. If they're Italian, it's a mob. If they're Jewish, it's a coincidence and you should never speak about it."

Greenblatt was not the only Jewish leader to criticize Chappelle's routine, though few condemned it as strongly as he did. The Jerusalem Post accused Chappelle of "engaging in antiSemitic tropes, while Rabbi Josh Yuter tweeted: "As I understood Chappelle's monologue, the key point is that there are double standards regarding who can say what about whom. If my Twitter feed is any indication, everyone agrees this is a problem though there's rampant disagreement over the details." However, Time Out New York critic Adam Feldman tweeted: "That Dave Chappelle SNL monologue probably did more to normalize anti-Semitism than anything Kanye said."

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