Larry David addresses concentration camps joke in SNL cameo

Last week, Saturday Night Live had itself a pretty controversial moment courtesy of a joke within Larry David’s opening monologue. There were many who were upset and angry about him talking about women at concentration camps, and we understand why — it’s obviously a sensitive topic no matter the era and David is the sort of comic who has a tendency to take things to an inappropriate place. He definitely did that by playing a character here who diminishes the horror of these camps for the sake of a joke.

So how did he respond to the criticism? By appearing again tonight — albeit briefly, and making another joke in turn about it. David made a surprise cameo during the Democratic National Convention sketch (read more here) in which he played, for the second straight week, Bernie Sanders. He didn’t exactly apologize for the initial joke; instead, he used the Bernie character to “condemn” people who would come out and tell these sort of jokes to begin with. It was a small bit of meta-comedy that got a somewhat mixed response in the room. (There are times when we wonder if the SNL studio audience even knows what show they’re there to watch — did some of these people not see the show last week? It didn’t seem like all of them knew what he was talking about.)

Those of you who want an actual apology for what David said will probably be disappointed — he’s not the sort of comic to do something like that, and he knew what he was doing when he first made the joke. Many comedians like to make people uncomfortable, and that was clearly his plan.

The better question you should wonder is whether or not SNL will invite David back, given that much of the sentiment around him has changed publicly ever since he first did the Bernie impression and took America by storm. Reviews of the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm have been mixed at best. We’re not sure the buzz around him is the same as it once was.

For the record, though, we do think David coming back is a possibility, but it’s probably not going to be for a little while. The only way that changes is if the show decides to really go all-in when it comes to bringing on board comedians as hosts. They’ve done a lot of that this season already, including tonight with Tiffany Haddish.

What did you think about Larry David making a cameo on SNL tonight, and did you like the way in which this was addressed? Share below in the comments section!

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