‘Is It Culturally Productive? Don Lemon Questions Dave Chappelle Over Anti-Semitism Jokes in SNL Monologue

CNN’s Don Lemon wondered if there was any point to Dave Chappelle’s jokes about anti-semitism when the comedian hosted Saturday Night Live over the weekend.

CNN This Morning took time on Monday to discuss Chappelle’s monologue, where he riffed on the recent anti-Semitism controversies of Kanye West and Kyrie Irving. Chappelle is no stranger to controversy, so his monologue included some edgier comedy as he poked fun at common tropes of anti-Semitism while speaking broadly about cancellation and society’s reluctance to broach sensitive topics.

Since the monologue was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, Lemon turned to Audie Cornish for her thoughts, and she argued that Chappelle’s tangent was “constructed to play-act out the idea of cancellation.” This led to Lemon asking if it would be “hypocritical” to get offended by Chappelle’s comments about Jews if people aren’t offended by his jokes about trans people and others.

Here’s how Cornish made sense of it:

I don’t want to police how people hear things because people have the right to be offended and jokes always have a person who is a victim of the joke. That is a fact. Comedians are struggling with the fact that the victims can now speak out and back so they’re accountable for the laughter. But you know, Chappelle…he’s on a pedestal in terms of his position in the culture. SNL puts him after big elections and his show was known basically for straddling the line with spiky commentary on race, et cetera. I think the problem right now is that he’s sort of dragging into the limelight a kind of black strain of anti-Semitism from the ’90s, but he’s not reckoning with it with the same precision that he does with, say, Trump voters.

Cornish eventually arrived at the point that Chappelle, at this moment, didn’t exhibit the same kind of social responsibility he felt in the past when people laughed at his material on touchy subjects. As a result, Lemon questioned, “Is it culturally productive?”

Cornish answered by suggesting a different question of some ironic detachment at play: “Is [Chappelle] exposing some cultural truth to your ear, or is he white-washing, echoing, amplifying toxic ideas and laundering them through his own reputation as a comedian?”

“Is he excusing what Kanye West or Kyrie said or did?” Lemon followed up.

“I almost think that’s not the point,” said Cornish. “For the jokes, it’s easy for us to focus on those things, but we’re reckoning with anti-semitism more broadly in the culture. And this is a very specific cultural platform, and I think how we hear it is in that context…Really it’s about, are we back to a point it’s okay to talk in the manner in every sector of life and not expect there to be a social penalty.”

Watch above via CNN.

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