Pete Davidson, Who Might Be One Of Several Exiting Cast Members, Dragged Chrissy Teigen On “Saturday Night Live”
“Stay cool” isn’t just a cute suggestion on Pete Davidson’s sweatshirt. When Pete dropped by the Weekend Update desk on the season finale of Saturday Night Live, he delivered a joke about Chrissy Teigen that was so ice cold, the logo on his sweatshirt could double as a promise. And previously when Pete has cracked a joke about real people, they sometimes get upset enough that Pete is then forced to deliver an awkward on-air mea culpa about it next to the person he dragged for laughs. But if internet rumors and speculation turn out to be correct, then we’ll never see Chrissy forcing a smile as she accepts a live apology from Pete next season. Because Saturday’s show was the final episode of the 46th season, and sources believe it was the end of Pete’s tenure as a cast member. And joining him might be Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Kenan Thompson.
Pete showed up on Weekend Update for a segment on Mental Health Awareness Month and the CDC’s newest mask policies, which makes sense since Pete has been very vocal about his own mental health. Ironically, Pete’s appearance likely didn’t do much good for Chrissy Teigen’s mental health in the event she decided to tune in to SNL to escape the non-stop dumpfest that has been her life over the past couple of weeks. But Pete didn’t make an obvious joke about Chrissy losing cookware-related business deals left and right. It was actually a casual, cough-and-you’ll-miss-it throwaway joke about one of the bright sides of the pandemic. via Entertainment Tonight:
“If there’s one good thing about the pandemic, besides getting Chrissy Teigen out of our lives,” Davidson continued, to the amused surprise of the audience. Davidson couldn’t help but laugh at the reaction and added, “I’m relieved.”
Oh, Pete, you think the pandemic is enough to permanently remove Chrissy Teigen from our lives? She’s much too powerful than that. She’ll still be slinging cookbooks and apologizing for bullying long after humans have turned to dust and the world becomes dominated by a race of hyper-intelligent alien bacteria. Chrissy wasn’t the only famous name to get a shout-out from Pete. He also cracked a joke about Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce, saying: “People aren’t getting the vaccine because they think it’s just Bill Gates trying to put a microchip inside you. Trust me, if he was that much of an evil genius, Melinda would have signed a prenup.” It’s true. And besides, we all know by now that it isn’t microchips that Bill Gates wants to put in people.
At the end of his segment, Pete got sincere and told Colin Jost that what the pandemic really taught him was that he couldn’t predict what the future holds, before adding that he’s “very grateful to be here” and that it was “an honor” to get to grow up in front of the SNL audience. It sounded like that was his last show. Pete has been a cast member on SNL for seven seasons, and many think the 46th season will be his last. Deadline writes that many have speculated Pete isn’t coming back. Pete himself has said that he didn’t love it when SNL made him a punchline or gave him the same “big dumb idiot” characters to play. Another hint that SNL is facing an exodus was the cold open, which opened with four of the shows longest-tenured cast members (Aidy, Kate, Cecily, and Kenan) talking about what they remember about this season (which was weird for a whole bunch of reasons, including, but not limited to, the pandemic, and the 2020 election). If you’re good at reading body language, then you can see that all four were definitely giving off “last day of work at a job they liked” vibes.
Kate McKinnon and the #SNL cast during the cold open tonight! #SNLFinalepic.twitter.com/DbkgfEeLvi
— Adoring Kate McKinnon (@KateMcKinnonNet) May 23, 2021
If those four were to leave after this most recent season, then Aidy would be clocking out with seven seasons of work, Cecily with nine, Kate with ten, and Kenan with literally the most seasons anyone has ever been there, with eighteen. Only Pete has publicly expressed that he might leave, but there are some clues that they are all leaving, like Kenan’s sitcom Kenan, which shoots in Los Angeles, getting renewed for a second season. And, that there hasn’t been such a huge cast overhaul since 2012, when Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg, and Jason Sudeikis left.
No one has said for sure whether they’re done, and sometimes that kind of announcement comes later on. But let’s face it: Pete, Aidy, Kate, Cecily, and Kenan are probably leaving. I hope that Lorne Michaels uses the summer months to re-enforce the studio with some steel beams. Please think of the health and safety of Bowen Yang’s shoulders and back. With Aidy, Kate, Cecil, and Kenan gone, you cannot expect him to carry the show alone.
Pic: SNL