Ariana Grande was supposed to be the musical guest on SNL’s season premiere over the weekend, but as Kaiser mentioned Kanye filled in and he was a MAGA mess. Ariana has been taking a mental health break following the sudden death of her ex boyfriend, Mac Miller, about three weeks ago. I can’t imagine what she’s been going through, and she’s hinted on Twitter that she’s having a tough time. Honestly I’m surprised that she’s still with Pete Davidson. They moved so quickly that I thought they would have flamed out by now. They’ve gotten umpteen tattoos for each other and most recently adopted a pet pig, after which Pete commemorated the event with yet another tattoo. They’re still together and Ariana was even backstage at SNL despite dropping out of performing. Pete addressed their relationship during a Q&A on Weekend Update with Colin Jost. (Sidenote: Jost could have done a similar interview talking about his relationship with Scarlett Johansson, but there’s not as much interest in them.) Pete had a lot of the same talking points that we’ve heard from him – that Ariana is too good for him, that he’s OK with her earning more money and that it feels unreal. Then he made an awful joke about getting her pregnant without her permission.
“I got engaged and no one could believe it. I can’t believe it,” Davidson remarked. “I get it, she’s the No. 1 pop star in the world and I’m that guy from SNL that everyone thinks is in desperate need for new blood.”
“Do you remember when that whole city pretended that kid was Batman because he was sick? That’s what this feels like,” he added.
Davidson went on to reveal that he’s totally in favor of the pair getting a prenup before tying the knot.
“Obviously I wanted one, you know, so God forbid we split up and then she takes half my sneakers,” he joked. “No look, I’m totally comfortable being with a successful woman, I think it’s dope. I live at her place.”
“The man doesn’t always have to be the breadwinner in a relationship,” Jost remarked.
“God— right, Colin. He does not,” Davidson replied, before announcing that he’s come up with a way to make sure Grande has a reason to stay with him for life.
“Last night I switched her birth control with Tic Tacs,” he said. “I believe in us and all, but I just want to make sure that she can’t go anywhere.”
I hope he was serious about the prenup but that birth control joke was awful. When I covered the story about Ian Somerhalder throwing away Nikki Reed’s birth control pills without her permission so many of you schooled me that this was called reproductive coercion and is a common abuser tactic. This is a bad joke that Pete probably didn’t even write, but did anyone on the SNL staff speak out that it should be cut?
Meanwhile Ariana has been Instagramming about her mental health and she posted a couple of quotes to her stories. I really like this quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the fall is my favorite season.
Their pig is so cute!
I don’t know, it’s definitely a joke that’s in poor taste but it’s not the same as Ian actually throwing out the pills. I thought it was kind of funny because I’m pretty sure they’re only joking.
the truth comes out in jest. When he says “I want to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere,” that’s kind of frightening. A boyfriend did that to me (sabotaged birth control). No one should be “forced” to stay with anyone. Is he that insecure?
I figure whether the joke was offensive or not is her call since she’s the brunt of it. Wouldn’t be surprised if he ran it all by her first: There was a lot of stuff in it that someone in a relationship might be sensitive to: pre-nups, “if they broke up” speculation, etc.
He’s just gross in every way.
I thought it was a bit controversial…but wasn’t personally offended. He was more putting himself down. She is LOADED, he says he lives in her house, where she pays 60k a month in rent, and that ALL he does is stock the fridge. I feel like the joke painted him as a loser that wants to be a gold digger. They probably joke about this stuff themselves privately.
Honestly, my husband sometimes teases me that I can never leave now…because we have a kid. It is a little creepy, but some people do have a more twisted sense of humor.
He seems to have the mind-set of a 14-year old boy…and that is…EXHAUSTING to watch….
Yes a 14 year old boy who got the attention of the most popular girl in school and now he doesn’t know what to do with himself. OMG she’s the prettiest girl in the school and she smiled at me…my dreams have come true ! He’s getting a little annoying with this sh*t. He needs more self-confidence.
I think it was supposed to be a play on the reverse situation of women usually being the ones ‘binding’ men to themselves with a pregnancy in the context of her being the more successful of the two.
Of course Colin Jost and Michael Che, as head writers, don’t get that you can’t just reverse this stupid trope because it gets real sinister, real fast that way around.
God, why do they get to run this show.
Yup I think you’ve got it. That was the intention, but they couldn’t see why they should not go there.
I agree on all counts. I definitely think that was the intention, but it doesn’t come off well for women – so I’m not at ALL surprised Jost/Che were fine with it.
That “joke” is appalling! If I was Adrianna, I’d be taking EXTRA care to keep my meds close! I know Pete has “problems”, but that was just beyond awful!
I hope Ariana has (or gets) a VERY good therapist, and obtains some perspective about her ptsd and how it is likely impacting her life choices right now.
These two both look like they need nourishment and some serious rest.
Something tells me Scarjo and Jost are very glad there is little interest. They’ve kept it pretty private while not going chris/Gwyneth on it either. Scarlett is over the showbiz relationship thing and something tells me Pete and Ariana will be once this ends in disaster
This is not going to end well
This week SNL made three allusions to Pete Davidson’s summer – in the monologue, in the sketch with Kyle Mooney, and with the WU bit. I have read accounts that Davidson is not in a good place in his life now. I hope things turn out okay for him and maybe this relationship with Grande will work out. But it seems very cruel for the show to use his personal life as joke fodder given that maybe it won’t end well. (And even if he agreed to it, or it was his idea – they should have taken a pass.)
And as for the Tic Tac joke – not funny. Getting a woman pregnant without her consent is horrifying.
Are Pete and Ariana that famous now? I’m 31 and I really doubt most of my friends know who he is or that he’s dating Ariana. Would people in their 30s and older that don’t pay attention to celebrity gossip even get those jokes? Lol am I already too old to be the target audience of SNL?
I think Ari is. Pete’s really only achieved this level of fame once he started dating Ariana.
Another pet she’s going to give away in a few months. The baby pig is only going to be tiny and “cute” for a little while. As soon as she can’t sleep with it, it’s going to magically end up at a farm. (Slaughter house)
I really really hope not. My boss’s oldest daughter has a freaking adorable pet pig and it’s just like a smart dog-potty trained, sleeps on a dog bed, the works. He was skeptical at first but now considers it his “grand-pig.” I’ve never heard anything about them being shitty pet owners and Ariana has impressed me with the way she handled the Manchester aftermath, so I’m pulling for her.
I actually think that Ariana is a pretty good pet owner. She has a lot of dogs, and she even took in Mac Miller’s pooch after he died, which I thought was pretty respectable. She was on Fallon, and one of her dogs was there and they let it out on stage and it ran straight to Ariana’s arms and stayed nestled there throughout the whole interview. It was really sweet. Hopefully Ariana will have the same dedication with the pig; she strikes me as a smart cookie who knows what she’s getting into–maybe not necessarily when it comes to men though!
I know someone who bought was she thought was a mini variety of a pig, but was actually malnourished to “not grow” and seem easy to handle 🙁 This story is beyond sad, and the pig grew to be huge, but had some brain issues. Last I heard they have kept the pig, but the cautionary tale leads us to be better pet owners doing more research if possible.
I’ve been trying to carefully give Pete Davidson the benefit of the doubt and not be too biased against him, but this combined with some other thing he said recently isn’t really sitting well with me. Sure he was joking, and it probably was intended as a reversal of the sexist stereotype about women trapping rich men with babies, but it’s still more than a little cringe with everything going on in the world right now. If I were his famous fiancé and he told that joke on SNL or even just social media, we’d definitely have words in private.
I think he seems humbled enough by his relationship with such a powerful woman that if she didn’t like a joke he was making about her, he wouldn’t make it. It was in poor taste, but not much more than that.
He’s a comedian and it was a joke, he was being self-deprecating and I thought this skit was funny and cute. I highly doubt that Ariana is checking her birth control pills for tic tacs. She probably thought this was hilarious. I think it was all in good fun.
Self deprecating is when you’re mocking yourself. This comes across as controlling and creepy, and not remotely funny.
I know what self-deprecation means and that’s exactly how I saw this. He was definitely mocking himself and I found it quite funny. We all have different senses of humor so I can see why some people might be offended by what he said but I think it was fine.
Yeah, I agree!
Maybe the tic-tac joke is common but I remember that one from the Simpsons. Mrs. Krabappel was reading a list to Marge during a parent teacher conference of all the bad things Bart had done to her and replacing her birth control with tic-tacs was one of them. It was a classic episode that oddly enough brought up the prospects of Bart being a supreme court justice.
That’s all I got. There’s too much going on to get worked up about a bad joke.
Rihanna is the biggest pop star in the world, I think…and I don’t know why but seems to me like this is the beginning of the end for these 2, Ariana pulling out of SNL as musical guest, just a hunch…
I was thinking Taylor Swift or Beyonce. Lady Gaga is up there too. Either way, it’s definitely not Ariana Grande. IMO, the biggest pop star in the world would be someone known to everyone, all ages. A 60 year old man and a 10 year old girl should be able to name one of their songs. Ariana doesn’t fit the bill.
I think she pulled out of performing because she’s taking a break after being harassed about Mac Miller’s death.
Rihanna was the biggest pop star in the world in 2013. Taylor was probably up until Reputation. Bey’s album with Jay-Z flopped, and let’s be real, I don’t think Bey has had a true-blue HIT that everyone can sing along to and groove to on the dance floor since Single Ladies. I’m struggling to think of another pop star bigger than Ariana at the moment. She’s certainly the Queen of UK pop after the classy way she handled Manchester. Literally everyone knows her over there.
Dude is disgusting. Run Ariana.
I just see it as a fling. A post break up rebound fling with lots of sex. They seem to have a good sex life and sadly some people stick around for that even when the actual relationship is disfunctional. Eventually though just like a flame it’ll burn out. I was thinking that the death of Mac might snap some sense back into her, but apparently not.
Whats why worse is on Stern he defended that Priest that groped Ariana and he said when Bill Clinton ogled her he was “proud”.
Omg I was waiting for someone to bring this up. He was 100% serious when he said that too. It’s usually Stern & co dehumanizing women but it came from Pete himself.
I think it was a bad joke, but with the current political climate it fell so flat to me.
I’m not thrilled with this, but…I can get what he was going for. It’s not a great joke given the current political climate, but I get the subversive humor in gender-reversing a stereotype about women locking down men with babies. It just feels a little too real for some women right now because of Kavanaugh’s potential confirmation.
I’m pretty sure it’s his schtick but how far he goes with how unworthy he is for her always comes off as pathetic. I wouldn’t want to date a guy like that.
I cringed at the tic tac joke just because I don’t think jokes about trapping or coercing women are funny. I think it propagates patriarchy. I know comedians like to be free to push the envelope but I think those kinds of jokes have been a part of pop culture since the beginning of time so it’s not really that subversive to make a joke like that. Plus, I think after last week, we are all on edge. I am. I have no patience for jokes or mentalities like that.
besides weekend update they had an entire pre-taped sketch talking about their relationship (other cast member joked he needed a high profile relationship to compete with pete), if Ariana had been the musical guest that would have been SO MUCH
discussion of their relationship. now I do think this was partially for publicity
I don’t get why he’s on SNL. He pretty much always plays a version of himself and even does that poorly.
I just want the pig.
The joke was bad, but the whole segment was cringe-worthy. I’m curious how much longer this relationship will last. I always had a feeling that she was with him just to spite Mac and ultimately thought she’d end up back with him, but now that he has passed away… I think Pete only has a few more months with her and she will bounce.
Reproductive abuse is not a joke.
I thought he was funny. If their relationship is a good one, he should be able to joke about it. Lighten up.