Pete Davidson is back in the spotlight and making jokes about his breakup with Ariana Grande. The SNL comedian even took some time out to joke about Louis C.K., who has earned the ire of many for jokes of his own in recent days.
Davidson performed in Boston on New Year’s Eve, his first public appearance on stage since a scary moment in December when the comedian deleted his Instagram after a cryptic message many assumed was about his mental health. According to Deadline, the set covered a variety of topics, with Davidson riffing about his breakup with Grande and took shots at himself and other comedians.
The standup called it a “sad day” when ‘Thank U, Next’ came out and joked about the first time he heard the song, which was dropped just before he appeared in an episode of Saturday Night Live in November.
The song was released November 3, just moments before Saturday Night Live aired. “That s–t came out before I had to put on a f–king duck hat and be like, ‘derrrp here’s the pizza!’ So all my friends were there. It was a sad day,” Davidson told the crowd. “We didn’t know it was going to happen.”
“This won’t be easy, this is rough,” he continued. “So I start playing it. And we’re all like, ‘Ehhh… it’s ok.’ We’re like ‘Okay, it’s not that bad for you. It’s bad, but it’s not that bad for you.’”
The comedian joked that his mom, a school nurse, has gotten comments from students about the song, which is at least in part about Grande’s breakup with Davidson after their brief engagement in 2018.
Davidson also made a joke about his tattoos and used the opportunity to take a swipe at Louis C.K., saying he usually makes the joke about Aziz Ansari but has recently had a change of heart. Deadline reported that the set specifically mocked the embattled comedian for his recent jokes about shooting victims and people who identify as non-binary, then implied that he’d like to see the comedian die.
“I got a Harry Potter tattoo,” he began. “Then the next day Alan Rickman, the guy who played Snape, died, and I was like, oh, what a weird coincidence.”
Strange enough. He went on, “Then I got a Willy Wonka tattoo. Next day—Gene Wilder dies. Now I’m like, alright, that’s a coincidence, that’s weird. So I’m thinking of getting a tattoo of Louis C.K., what do you guys think?” Davidson continued, “That joke used to be about Aziz Ansari, but Aziz has been nice to me recently.”
Davidson received an outpouring of support online after he received initial backlash for supporting Kanye West’s addressing his own mental health online. Despite deleting his social media accounts, Davidson was fine and showed up to SNL that evening, though his sketches were reportedly pulled because of concerns over his mental health.
