Saturday Night Live Star Felt Like A Loser When The Show Made Fun Of Him

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Saturday Night Live alum, Pete Davidson, recently opened up about how he felt like a "loser" when the show made jokes at his expense. The stand-up comedian joined NBC's long-running variety show in 2014 at the age of 20, one of the youngest cast members in the show's history. He lasted for seven seasons until his departure in 2022. Although Davidson proved to be a popular Saturday Night Live addition, the comedian's many high-profile relationships with celebrities, including Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale, Margaret Qualley, and Kim Kardashian among others, propelled him into the national spotlight.

While on actor Jon Bernthal's podcast Real Ones (via People), Davidson opened up about Saturday Night Live making fun of him and how it made him feel awful. Although he praised the show's creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, Davidson claimed he felt like a "f---ing loser" following a moment when the show targeted the comedian's personal life. Read what Davidson said below:

When your own show [pokes fun at you], I'd be sitting in the back watching the cold open and — the cold open [is] topical, political humor, whatever's in the culture. And then, making fun of you. Then you've gotta walk out and do a sketch next and hit your mark and the show just made fun of you. So, why are they gonna laugh at you? Like, they just dogged you in front of everyone. ... And you're like, "I'm a f---ing loser, man."

These are the people I've been with for almost a decade. I grew up in front of these people. They've watched me through the most difficult time in my life, and they've been there for me. And nobody ever showed more leeway and grace to me than Lorne Michaels, and I owe my life to that guy, but it was f---ing confusing cause the nature of entertainment is the nature of this business. At the end of the day, that's what it is. This was a really difficult thing to do. You feel small. You feel super insecure.

SNL Has a Long History of Angering Celebrities

Originally premiering in 1975, Saturday Night Live managed to accrue a long list of incidents and controversies that left many disgruntled. Arguably one of the show's biggest cast members, Eddie Murphy left the show in 1984 to pursue a career in movies. However, it took decades for the actor-comedian to host the show in 2019. His extended hiatus is directly attributed to resentment over a harsh joke from David Spade who targeted Murphy's languishing career in the mid-1990s.

The late comedian Norm Macdonald was famously removed from the "Weekend Update" desk following a series of jabs at O.J. Simpson during the former athlete's high-profile murder trial. With Simpson being a friend of NBC West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer, the executive took action against the comedian after several attempts to get Macdonald to tone down the material. However, the comedian soon walked off the show in protest when Ohlmeyer demanded Macdonald fire his writing partner Jim Downey.

Although Saturday Night Live poking fun at one of its own is not uncommon, as the show has been self-deprecating since its inception, making light of a cast member's personal life may have been a step too far. Davidson has used the show to joke about his relationships before, targeting his short-lived romance with Grande, but the humor was coming from his own experience. With Saturday Night Live showing no signs of stopping anytime soon, audiences can surely expect more controversies in the future.

Source: Real Ones (via People)