[SPOILERS for those not caught up on The Walking Dead ahead.]

-

Easily one of the most discussed pop culture moments of 2016 was Negan's big kill scene during The Walking Dead's hotly anticipated season 7 premiere. An impressive resolution to TWD's infamous season 6 cliffhanger, Negan taking the business end of Lucille to the skulls of two unfortunate members of Rick Grimes' group proved to a powerful sequence by just about any measure - drawing a mixture of disgust, sadness, anger, and awe from the apocalyptic series' millions of fans.

Of course, with any big pop culture occurrence comes the eventual barrage of parodies of the incident, such as a funny video that recreated Negan's brutal murders in LEGO form. The internet was also flooded with morbidly funny memes concerning the deaths for quite awhile after the premiere aired, with Supernatural star Jensen "Dean Winchester" Ackles even engaging in a tongue-in-cheek Twitter exchange with his former TV dad Jeffrey Dean Morgan about Negan's actions.

That said, leave it to a comic as talented as Dave Chappelle to arguably top all previous Negan parodies with the incredible sketch he put together for this past weekend's episode of Saturday Night Live. As mentioned by Chappelle during the broadcast, many fans had wondered going in whether the former Chappelle's Show creator and star would reprise any of his celebrated characters from the Comedy Central series while hosting SNL. Thankfully, Chappelle did not disappoint, presenting a scenario in which Chappelle's rendition of Negan was deciding which classic Chappelle's Show character he was going to kill with Lucille.

The sketch has been heavily praised, and has today caught the attention of Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. His Twitter reaction to the parody is below:

As seems fairly evident by Kirkman's reaction, he ended up just as impressed as most have been by Chappelle's take on Negan's kill scene. It's not clear if Kirkman is or was a fan of Chappelle's Show - he's seemingly never been asked that question publicly - but one assumes it must be pretty creatively satisfying indeed to see one's own work affectionately made fun of by a comedian as highly regarded as Chappelle; especially in Chappelle's big comeback to sketch comedy after a decade-plus hiatus from the medium.

Jokes aside, as seen in the episodes since the season premiere, the immediate future of The Walking Dead's characters is shaping up to be anything but a laughing matter. Still, fans can surely enjoy a good respite from all the darkness of the actual series from time to time.

The Walking Dead season 7 airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.

Source: Robert Kirkman