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LeBron James has long made it clear he’s no fan of Donald Trump, and so it’s no surprise that Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election in the eyes of TV networks drew celebration from the Los Angeles Lakers superstar on Saturday. But James also knew Trump’s loss will be celebrated by someone else on Saturday, and that person happens to have quite a platform on which to do it.
Dave Chappelle will host Saturday Night Live, a role he returns to after doing the same thing after Trump was elected four years ago. While Chappelle’s monologue in 2016 was cathartic for some who hoped Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton, some initially feared that news he would be back on Saturday served as a bad omen for the 2020 election. Those fears took, well, a few days to dissipate, as networks held back in declaring Biden the winner as mail-in ballots were counted up in several close races in the electoral college.
But on Saturday afternoon, Trump’s loss became more clear and LeBron had one thing on his mind: Chappelle will be ready to bring it during the show’s monologue.
CHAPPELLE SNL. TONIGHT.
CHAPPELLE SNL. TONIGHT.
CHAPPELLE SNL. TONIGHT.
CHAPPELLE SNL. TONIGHT.My brother about to flame that studio up tonight!!! . LETS GO!!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) November 7, 2020
“My brother about to flame that studio up tonight!” James tweeted, then using the emoji that often comes when someone is declared a “problem” on the basketball court. And given Chappelle’s history of doing event-specific stand-up on short notice, James has good reason to be excited. When hecklers upended his set in Hartford during the Oddball Comedy Festival in 2013, for example, his set the next night in Pittsburgh revolved almost entirely around the events of the prior night. And his post-election ‘SNL’ in 2016 is one of the rare instances in the show’s recent memory where the political-based comedy truly felt like it fit the moment without simply parroting events that simply actually happened, as the show’s cold opens often tend to.
James tweeted a lot about voting rights efforts made by himself and others in recent months, congratulated Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris and also joked with Draymond Green that he can now visit the White House to celebrate the Lakers’ NBA title win now that Trump will be out of office come January. But he also made it clear that like a lot of people, he’ll be watching to see what Chappelle says on Saturday night.
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