Pete Davidson Gets Emotional as He Says Goodbye to 'Saturday Night Live'
He delivered some seriously good jokes.
And that's a wrap. Pete Davidson has said goodbye to Saturday Night Live after eight years of jokes.
On his final "Weekend Update" segment with co-host Colin Jost, he started out strong with the one-liner, "Hello Colin and Che, and millions of people only watching to see if I bring up Kanye."
In case you didn't quite catch the context there, Pete Davidson has been dating Kim Kardashian—who was previously married to Kanye "Ye" West—since the fall, and West has publicly insulted him on various platforms since then. Davidson also brought up West's mental health struggles on SNL in 2018.
"I never imagined this would be my life, you know," the comedian continued. "I mean, look at me when I started here. Like back then, I was just like a skinny kid and no one knew what race I was. And like now everyone knows I'm white, because I became hugely successful while barely showing up to work."
Carrying on with the self-deprecating jokes, Davidson said, "And look at me now, I'm aging like an old banana! And Colin still looks like the only Kennedy who doesn't drink."
Speaking about some of the things he would miss most after the show, he recalled, "I called [Lorne Michaels, producer of SNL] and said—when I got engaged—I said, 'Lorne, I just got engaged to Ariana Grande after dating for two weeks and he said, 'oh, hold on for dear life!'" ???
Elaborating on his relationship with the producer, he then explained, "And then when I auditioned for SNL, he looked me right in the eye and said, 'I don't think you're right for this show. So let's screw this up together.' And that's exactly what we did, and that's why people who don't think I deserve this job shouldn't hate me, since we have so much in common." This is actually so sweet.
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At this point in his speech, Davidson's voice started to crack slightly as he became emotional. "I appreciate SNL always having my back, and allowing me to work on myself and grow and, you know, thank you to Lorne for never giving up on me or, you know, judging me, even when like everyone else was and for believing in me and allowing me to have a place that, like, I could call home with the memories that'll last a lifetime, so thank you guys." :) :) :)
Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.