Ahead of this weekend’s Elon Musk-hosted edition of SNL, Pete Davidson stopped by the Breakfast Club headquarters for an extended interview that opened with the King of Staten Island star going into greater detail about the pre-show controversy.
As Davidson explained, he recently went out to dinner with Musk—as well as Lorne Michaels, Chris Redd, Kenan Thompson, and other SNL figures—and the topic of the controversy surrounding the Tesla CEO’s hosting gig didn’t come up.
“I don’t understand … We didn’t discuss it at all because we’re all just like, why?” Davidson said about a minute into the 43-minute interview. “I just don’t understand why this is the dude everyone is so freaked out about. … I was like, what did he do? He’s just, like, a really wealthy businessman that makes, like, nerd shit. He’s really nice. I’m excited.”
Davidson also questioned the veracity of rumors of other SNL cast members having expressed concern and even considered boycotting the show over Musk being made host, saying “nobody that I fuck with” has said a word about it.
About 10 minutes into the chat, Davidson was asked about the reactions he received from some in Staten Island over SNL jokes he made in December about an area bar’s refusal to follow COVID-19 safety precautions.
“I mean, I said that and then the next day the guy, like, ran over a cop which wasn’t really a good response,” Davidson said. “I love Staten Island, obviously. I live there still. I’m a comedian. I pick at stuff. I make fun of myself and where I’m from. I don’t think it’s fair to pick at other stuff and not be able to pick at your own stuff. As a comic, that’s your job.”
Continuing, Davidson—who will soon be seen as Joey Ramone in an upcoming biopic—expressed that he doesn’t give a lot of thought to people who drag down Staten Island’s public image.
“You know, there’s some people on Staten Island that are some interesting people and you just gotta deal with it,” he said. “I don’t really give a shit about those people and I just hope they stop doing stuff like that.”
About “90 percent of the time,” Davidson added, the reactions he gets from people in Staten Island are “super positive.” The comedian said he has “no hatred” toward anyone but is instead interested in promoting what he believes are the good aspects of the borough.
“When people in Staten Island do stuff like that in the bar, it doesn’t help,” he said.
Around the 24-minute mark, Davidson is asked about the presumably unpleasant people who criticized Kid Cudi over his recent SNL performance, during which he—awesomely, it should be noted—rocked a dress.
“I loved it,” Davidson said. “I thought it was great. I think, you know, when you get criticism like that it’s just like, OK cool, those are people I don’t really wanna associate myself with anyway, people that are that close-minded. I thought it was really cool, a cool tribute. … I thought he killed it. I thought it was great. It was also fun to hang with him.”
Going deeper on social media non-controversies at large, Davidson—who personally avoids using social media—said the pandemic has exposed how “sick” many people are.
“We live in a world right now where everybody has an opinion and everybody loves being cool on the internet and just piggybacking [on] stuff, on anything they can be upset about,” he said.
Catch the full interview up top, which also sees Davidson going deep on the tattoo removal process and much more.
