Jerry Seinfeld says ‘subject matter’ in Dave Chappelle’s SNL opener calls for a ‘conversation’

According to Jewish comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle’s controversial opening monologue on “Saturday Night Live” dealt with a “subject matter” that “provokes conversation.”

“I did think the comedy was well-executed, but I think the subject matter calls for a conversation that I don’t think I’d want to have in this venue,” Seinfeld told the Hollywood Reporter.

When asked if it made him “uncomfortable,” the former sitcom star said, “It provokes a conversation which hopefully is productive.”

As BizPac Review reported, liberals had a very predictable meltdown after Chappelle took the “not-ready-for-primetime” stage on Saturday and began the night with a satirical pre-emptive strike against the critics he knew he’d trigger.

“I denounce antisemitism in all its forms,” Chappelle dutifully declared. “And I stand with my friends in the Jewish community.”

The deadpan punchline was directed at Kanye “Ye” West, who recently saw his fortune and social media presence dwindle after an alleged antisemitic rant.

“And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time,” Chappelle advised the rapper.

“I got to tell you guys, [I’ve] probably been doing this for 35 years now. And early in my career, I learned that there are two words in the English language that you should never say together in sequence,” Chappelle said. “And those words are ‘the’ and ‘Jews.’ I never heard someone do good after saying that.”

Faster than you can say “Live from New York,” the comedian and NBC were being slammed for “popularizing” antisemitism.

“We shouldn’t expect @DaveChappelle to serve as society’s moral compass, but disturbing to see @nbcsnl not just normalize but popularize #antisemitism,” tweeted Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt on Sunday. “Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?”

In addition to bringing up Ye, Chappelle discussed “the rules of perception.”

“It’s a big deal, he had broken the show business rules,” Chappelle said. “You know, the rules of perception. 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.”

“I’ve been to Hollywood,” he continued. “This is just what I saw. It’s a lot of Jews. Like a lot. But that don’t mean anything. I mean, there’s a lot of black people in Ferguson, Missouri. They don’t even run the place.”

“I would say if you had some kind of issue. You know what I mean. Might go out to Hollywood, might start connecting some sort of lines and maybe you could adopt the delusion that Jews run show business,” he said. “Not a crazy kind of thing to think. But it’s crazy thing to say out loud in a climate like this.”

Appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday, fellow comedian Jon Stewart, who is Jewish, defended Chappelle.


(Video: YouTube)

“Everybody calls me like, ‘You see Dave on SNL?’ And I say yes, we’re very good friends. I always watch and send nice texts,” Stewart said. “‘Well, he normalized antisemitism with the monologue.'”

“I don’t know if you’ve been on comment sections on most news articles, but it’s pretty f—–g normal,” Steward continued. “As you know, it’s incredibly normal. But the one thing I will say is I don’t believe that censorship and penalties are the way to end antisemitism or to gain understanding.”

“I don’t believe in that,” he stated. “It’s the wrong way for us to approach it.”

“Dave said something in the ‘SNL’ monologue that I thought was constructive, which, ‘It shouldn’t be this hard to talk about things,'” he noted. “And that’s what we’re talking about. Whether it be comedy or discussion or anything else, if we don’t have the wherewithal to meet each other with what’s reality, then how do we move forward?”

Melissa Fine

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