What to Expect From Bill Burr’s Post-Election Saturday Night Live Episode

When Republican candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump won the Presidential election just before dawn on Wednesday, millions of Americans awoke to a bleak future. But over at Studio 8H, Saturday Night Live is busy at work on the impossible—that is, finding the funny in what just happened. The NBC sketch series has enlisted stand up comic Bill Burr with fronting those efforts, as he will host the Saturday, November 9 episode alongside musical guest Mk.Gee.

This is a break in tradition for SNL, which invited comedian Dave Chappelle to host the show’s last two post-election episodes in 2016 and 2020, respectively. Over the last four years, however, Chappelle has experienced a fall of grace—at least in liberal circles—thanks to his transphobic jokes. Although that didn’t prevent him from scoring another invite to host SNL in 2022, he was evidently not Lorne Michaels’ choice for the post-election show.

As host, Burr—a 56-year-old white dude who has occasionally infiltrated the conservatively-bent, male-driven podcast ecosystem—will surely strike a different tone than Chappelle did. But like Chappelle, he is no stranger to controversial comedy.

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Burr made his Saturday Night Live debut in 2020, hosting the Oct. 10 episode just weeks before the 2020 election. During his opening monologue, Burr took aim at the complacency of white women who have “hijacked the woke movement,” which “was supposed to be about people of color not getting opportunities that they deserve.” It’s a topic that has been resurrected in light of high voter turnout among white women for Trump in the 2024 election.

“The nerve of you white women,” he continued, before venturing “back in history” to further his argument. “You guys stood by us toxic white males through centuries of our crimes against humanity. You rolled around in the blood money, and occasionally, when you wanted to sneak off and hook up with a Black dude, if you got caught, you said it wasn’t consensual. Yeah, that’s what you did! So, why don’t you shut up, sit down next to me, and take your talking-to?”

Burr, who is currently on a standup tour and will join Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk on Broadway for this spring’s revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that he had no intention of softening any blows. “I didn’t ‘skate on the edge’ of anything,” he said. “I said exactly what I was thinking. [White women] go after these guys going, ‘You were complicit!’ But weren’t you? Their complaining is louder than people that have it worse, and it’s so goddamn hilarious to me. ”

Elsewhere in the interview, Barr said that his political stance doesn’t excuse the Democratic party from judgment. “As someone who considers himself liberal, it’s disappointing to see the left become how the right used to be when they went after the Dixie Chicks after they criticized George W. Bush,” he said. “There’s not a lot of people like that—most are just trying not to get in trouble—but there’s this small collection of lunatics—either on the right or the left, at any given moment–that cause hysteria.”

Since then, Barr has come out against outspoken Trump ally Elon Musk, but has continued to be critical of liberals as well. After his wife Nia Renee Hill was seen giving Trump the middle finger at a 2023 UFC event, Barr said: “I love my wife, you know where you stand with [her]. The guy walked in the arena. Everybody cheered. She gave him the finger. Nobody got arrested. That’s why this country’s great. Everybody expressed themselves. Can we all be adults?”

In December 2023, prior to Joe Biden stepping down the 2024 presidential race, Barr rejected the idea of either him or Trump leading the countries. “I want somebody in their forties, somebody that’s going to have to live with their decisions,” Barr told Jimmy Kimmel. “With any luck, they’ll both die of natural causes before the election and maybe we can get somebody that still has something to live for.”

That person did not prove to be Kamala Harris, who made a surprise appearance on last week’s episode of Saturday Night Live alongside her onscreen counterpart, Maya Rudolph. It remains to be seen if Rudolph will give Harris a solemn sendoff on Saturday, as Kate McKinnon did for Hillary Clinton eight years ago. Or what Burr plans to do with an open mic during of the first major episodes of TV after a second Trump victory.