In lieu of a cold opening, Saturday Night Live’s 49th season began with an emotional message from host Pete Davidson addressing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“I know what you’re thinking… who better to comment on it than Pete Davidson? Well, in a lot of ways, I am a good person to talk about it because when I was seven years old, my dad was killed in a terrorist attack. So I know something about what that’s like.”

“I saw so many terrible pictures this week,” Davidson continued. “Children suffering, Israeli children and Palestinian children. And it took me back to a really horrible, horrible place. No one in this world deserves to suffer like that, especially not kids.”

“After my dad died, my mom tried pretty much everything she can do to cheer me up. I remember one day when I was eight, she got me what she thought was a Disney movie. But it was actually the Eddie Murphy stand up special Delirious. And we played it in the car on the way home. And when she heard the things Eddie Murphy was saying, she tried to take it away. But then she noticed something: for the first time in a long time, I was laughing again.”

“I don’t understand it. I really don’t and I never will. But sometimes comedy is really the only way forward through tragedy. My heart is with everyone whose lives have been destroyed this week. But tonight, I’m gonna do what I’ve always done in the face of tragedy, and that’s try to be funny.”

In lieu of a cold opening, Saturday Night Live’s 49th season began with an emotional message from host Pete Davidson addressing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.pic.twitter.com/mjqiHwX2UC

— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) October 15, 2023