Pete Davidson
A grinning conversationalist coasting on tabloid fame and dark family history.
3 specials · 2016–2024
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He ambles onto the stage in sweatpants and drapes himself over the microphone stand. The rhythm is entirely conversational. He grins at his own premise before the audience even registers what he is saying, chuckling his way through the setup. The structure is loose. He meanders toward a profoundly inappropriate detail about his mother or his own drug use, delivering it with a helpless shrug. He does not build tension. He just drops an awful detail and smiles until the room laughs along with him.
Specials
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A conversational, black-and-white hour about turning thirty and getting sober.
Netflix · 56 min
On stage
He exists in a strange space where his tabloid fame is bigger than his stage act. People buy tickets to get a live dispatch from a highly public life. After surviving turbulent breakups and a long run on Saturday Night Live, he has settled into being a permanent celebrity. He is the guy everyone reads about, showing up in person to prove he is in on the joke of his own life.
When the act works, it hits because he has absolutely no filter. He will say the darkest possible thing about his family, turning real tragedy into a cheap punchline that forces a laugh out of pure shock. But he rarely pushes the joke past that initial premise. Because his crowds are already happy just to see him, he almost never writes a second beat. He tosses out an update on his love life or a weird encounter with a stalker, waits for the applause, and moves on.
His entire comedic sensibility was built around the loss of his firefighter father in the September 11 attacks. That tragedy gave him a dark defense mechanism, which he eventually turned into a career.
Turning points
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Loss of Firefighter Father on 9/11
Pete Davidson was seven years old when his father Scott Davidson, an FDNY firefighter with Ladder 118, perished at the World Trade Center, a traumatic event that led him toward stand-up comedy and inspired his film The King of Staten Island.
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2014–2022
Cast Member Run on Saturday Night Live
Davidson served as a cast member on Saturday Night Live for eight years, gaining national prominence through his Weekend Update appearances and viral music videos.
At a glance
- Born
- Topics
- Elsewhere
- Wikipedia
Podcasts
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The Pete Davidson Show · host
A weekly video podcast hosted by Pete Davidson primarily from his garage featuring candid conversations with friends and celebrity guests.
Also on screen
- 2014–2022
- Saturday Night Live
- The King of Staten Island
- The Suicide Squad
- Dog Man
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- Bupkis
A clip to start with
A clip of Pete Davidson