Pete Davidson returned to the Weekend Update desk on this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live, where he addressed the money he and Colin Jost are losing on the decommissioned Staten Island ferry they purchased in January 2022.
Holding up a recent New York Times article about the ill-fated purchase, Davidson used the opportunity to defend his performance at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival. “In case you’re wondering why I had to do a show in Saudi Arabia, we’re losing millions on this ferry,” he joked. “I assume that’s what the article says. I can’t spend $5 on a paywall when I got a kid on the way.”
With Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, and Louis C.K. also on the bill, Davidson wasn’t the only comedian to face backlash for his performance. However, the criticism was especially pointed toward Davidson, whose father died while responding to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The Saudi Arabian government, which is currently named in a lawsuit alleging the kingdom’s role in funding the attack, sponsored the festival.
Related Video
Davidson referenced the 9/11 connection during the segment, while revisiting the bit that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is purportedly Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost’s uncle: “I understand RFK. You know, I wouldn’t be famous without my dad dying, either. Thank god that happened. Wouldn’t trade it.”
This isn’t the first time Davidson has defended the Saudi performance as just another gig. In a September appearance on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast, he dismissed claims that the festival was an attempt to “comedy-wash” the Saudi government’s atrocious human rights record. “I’ve been getting a little bit of flak just because my dad died [in] 9/11,” he said at the time. “So they’re like, ‘How could you possibly go there?’”
As is often the case, the simple answer is money.
Returning to the topic of the ferry, Davidson took a jab at SNL creator Lorne Michaels by referencing reports that Tina Fey could soon take over as executive producer. “If Lorne Michaels has taught us anything, it’s that you never, ever give up,” he said. “Even if everyone says the time has come and Tina Fey is ready to take over.”
According to the New York Times report, Davidson and Jost’s LLC, Titanic 2, is currently being sued for $13,500 in “outstanding obligations” on their ferryboat, John F. Kennedy. They purchased the vessel for $280,100 nearly four years ago in a move that Jost once described as “the dumbest and least thought-through purchase I’ve ever made in my life.”
It’s currently sitting unused in a Staten Island shipyard, with grandiose plans for a restaurant, concert venue, and movie theater left unrealized.
