Is Pete Davidson Leaving ‘SNL’ After This Season?: ‘I Think Everybody Outgrows It’
Pete Davidson surprisingly thinks his time on Saturday Night Live should have ended last season. During a candid interview with Charlamagne Tha God, Davidson opened up about a number of things, including what his future with SNL looks like. Will fans be seeing him on the show next season?
Davidson shares his thoughts about his role on SNL
The comedian is aware that he’s been fortunate to have been on the show since 2014 but believes that he should have been sent packing before now.
During the Feb. 24 interview, Charlamagne asked about SNL and when is the right time to leave the show. “It’s a hard thing to do because you don’t want to ever pull the trigger too early. But everybody’s always been like, ‘You’ll know when you know and it’ll be all right,'” Davidson shared.
When asked if he knows, Davidson admitted, “Yeah. Here’s the thing… I personally think I should be done with that show because they make fun of me on it.”
He continued, “I get it, but I’m cold open political punchlines, I’m Weekend Update jokes… [It’s like] whose side are you on,” he continued. “I have a weird feeling in that building where I don’t know whose team they’re playing for, really… if I’m the joke or I’m in on the joke.”
He says the show is ‘cutthroat’
While Davidson has been told that he’ll know when it’s the right time to leave, he admits that he thought that time came last year. “I really wanted last year to be my last year.”
As for whether there’s a family feeling on the show, Davidson shared that “Lorne is the sh*t… he’s the best and has treated me with nothing but love and he’s like a father figure to me, but as far as everyone else, it’s a cutthroat f*cking show. Everyone’s trying to get their sh*t on, everyone wants to be the next thing, so it’s not like a loving… you’re not going to get coddled over there. They don’t give a f*ck, at the end of the day.”
Davidson also pointed to the “fear of getting fired,” sharing, “You’re just like every day I’m getting fired so everybody’s just trying to pound their work on there and you gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”
Davidson said he definitely had that fear, sharing, “It’s scary to work over there.”
Despite the stress, the comedian is thankful for the amazing opportunity and everything he’s learned, including learning how to create a fully formed sketch beyond just one starting idea.
He’s outgrown the show
Davidson also shared why he can’t tell the SNL cast and writers not to joke about his personal life on the show, sharing, “because then like I’m a hypocrite… I can’t tell… that’s what they do, that’s their show.” He added, “If I’m just fodder now though, maybe I shouldn’t be there.”
His appearances on Weekend Update are self-deprecating, in a way because “that’s just my type of humor,” he noted, adding, “but also yeah, you gotta be because they think I’m f*cking dumb. Like, I’m literally painted out to be like this big dumb idiot. Like, even all my sketches are just me being like, ‘OK, sure.’… I have to.”
“I think everybody outgrows it and I think for what I could do on the show — which is just barely anything and it’s just Weekend Update, I feel like I’ve done, like, 30 of those and I just feel like, yeah, I’ve done as much as I can over there but happy to be there as long as Lorne likes me,” Davidson noted.
