Last night,Dave Chappellereturned to the limelight to host this week’s episode ofSaturday Night Live. All week, fans had wondered if the comedian had planned on resurrecting any of his beloved characters fromChappelle’s Showon the late-night sketch comedy show, and fans found out quickly that he was in fact bringing some of these characters back. During his opening monologue,Dave Chappellerevealed that he originally wasn’t planning on bringing back these characters, until he sawThe Walking Deadseason premiere, where Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) killed two iconic characters, Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), resulting in aWalking Deadparody sketch.
The spoof video, courtesy ofNBC, begins withDave ChappelleasNegan, wielding his barbed wire bat Lucille, trying to decide which character to kill. Instead of Rick and his group of survivors, though, it’s all characters fromChappelle’s Showwho have been lined up. This sketch features the crack-addicted Tyrone Biggums, the “player hater” Silky Johnston, alongsideDonnell Rawlingsas the jheri-curl player hater Beautiful and the white news anchor Chuck Taylor, all played byDave Chappelle. The sketch also featuresDave Chappelle’s hilarious imitation of rapperLil' Jonand the “black white supremacist” Clayton Bigsby.
This sketch marks the first time these characters have returned in more than a decade, afterChappelle’s Showunceremoniously ended afterDave Chappelleleft the show. Production was already under way on the third season whenDave Chappelleleft, with rumors swirling that he left to South Africa to undergo psychiatric treatment, but he later admitted it was more of a “spiritual retreat” to get away from everything. The show did ultimately return to Comedy Central briefly, but withoutDave Chappelle.
In 2006, Comedy Central aired what became known as the Lost Episodes ofChappelle’s Show, which comprised of three episodes that were already filmed beforeDave Chappelleleft the show.Charlie MurphyandDonnell Rawlingswere brought on to co-host the live audience portion of these episodes, which aired in July 2006, and were released on DVD shortly thereafter. The show is still widely beloved, and his now-iconicPrincesketch was revisited by many fans after the iconic singer passed away earlier this year.
As forThe Walking Dead, the real series returns with its fourth episode, entitledService, tonight at 9 PM ET. We’ve seen in anew clipreleased earlier this week that Negan has returned to Alexandria, bringing the now-captive Daryl (Norman Reedus) along with a big group of Saviors. None of Rick’s group have been killed since the harrowing season premiere, but that may change tonight. While we wait for this new episode, check out theSNLsketch below featuringDave Chappelleresurrecting severalChappelle’s Showcharacters.
