Finally, after weeks of new episodes that felt like awkward dress rehearsals for a funnier show we never got to see, Saturday Night Live delivered a performance that met the moment.

But it didn’t come from the place you might expect.

True enough, news that media organizations officially projected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as America’s next president and vice president lent a giddy energy to a show that, this season, often seemed unsure of what to say about all the real-life absurdity at hand.

In the show’s first “cold open” sketch, guest star Jim Carrey finally figured out how to balance his vaguely accurate Biden impression — really, he’s the only SNL performer in a while to even try sounding like the former vice president — with one of his most distinctive movie characters.https://www.youtube.com/embed/vJYL4Osyipc?rel=0

Saturday Night Live via YouTube

Holding his hand in a “L” shape while channeling Ace Ventura’s drawn out insult, “loooooser!” Carrey gave Biden followers a bit of gloating that the actual president-elect never could provide in real life. You wondered if Carrey took the SNL gig just to have that moment.

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But as fun as it was to see Maya Rudolph’s triumphant Kamala Harris, somehow decked out in a spot-on copy of what the real vice president-elect wore hours earlier, it didn’t really compare with the fire that was coming next from host Dave Chappelle.https://www.youtube.com/embed/Un_VvR_WqNs?rel=0

Saturday Night Live via YouTube

Admitting he was nervous and puffing on a cigarette — they allow indoor smoking in New York these days? — Chappelle kicked off his monologue talking about his great-grandfather. He wondered what his ancestor, a former slave, might feel in seeing his descendant’s old series, Chappelle’s Show, airing on Netflix and HBO Max with no compensation for the comic.

“He’d probably be like, ‘This n***a got bought and sold more than I did,’ ” Chappelle said, striking an oddly bitter tone. It was personal and not: on the surface a barb about getting cheated by a media conglomerate, but also a swing at a white-dominated system that somehow found a way to victimize a Black millionaire comedy star.

He made the case that America was a safer place because of the coronavirus pandemic. “Remember what life was like before COVID?” he asked. “I do. It was mass shooting every week. Thank God for COVID. Something had to lock these murderous whites up and keep them in the house.”

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rm Thanks To Dave Chappelle – Eric Deggans November 8, 2020 2:42 PM ET — Just Sayin’