Pete Davidson Described The 1st Time He Heard ‘Thank U, Next’ In Stand-Up Set

Pete Davidson has unloaded in a stand-up set on New Year’s Eve in Boston about the first time he heard his ex-fiancé Ariana Grande‘s smash single ‘Thank U, Next‘, and, look, it could’ve been worse.

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You know the damn song. But for entirely my benefit I will publish it here:

The track opens with Grande listing off celeb ex after celeb ex, only to conclude in the chorus that she’s “so fuckin’ grateful for [her] ex“. She resolves to focus on herself from now on. It’s heaps empowering, and we froth it.

Thought I’d end up with Sean
But he wasn’t a match
Wrote some songs about Ricky
Now I listen and laugh
Even almost got married
And for Pete, I’m so thankful
Wish I could say ‘Thank you’ to Malcolm
‘Cause he was an angel

Even almost got married, and for Pete, I’m so thankful,” Grande sings – and hey, if you compare it to the barbed Ricky Alvarez content, Davidson gets off lightly.

The track dropped on November 3, just before he was scheduled to appear on SNL, which is you know, a live show. He was both blindsided by the release and also not chuffed to be scheduled to do an unaired pizza sketch on the same evening the pop banger of 2018 blew up online/worldwide/fkn everywhere.

He also dropped in on Weekend Update in the episode to talk about the midterm elections which he started to pay attention to “after I had to move back in with my mom“. He ended the bit with a sweet shoutout to his ex, and to the song itself:

I know some of you are curious about the break-up, but the truth is, it’s nobody’s business and sometimes things just don’t work out, and that’s okay. She’s a wonderful, strong person and I genuinely wish her all the happiness in the world… I’m still a good song though.

In his stand-up set, as reported by the New York Times – via Deadline –  he explained that the day the song dropped was a “sad day“.

That shit came out before I had to put on a fucking duck hat and be like, ‘Derrrp here’s the pizza!’ So all my friends were there. It was a sad day. We didn’t know it was going to happen.”

This won’t be easy, this is rough. So I start playing it. And we’re all like, ‘Ehhh… it’s okay.’ We’re like ‘Okay, it’s not that bad for you. It’s bad, but it’s not that bad for you.’

It’s not that bad is such a supportive thing to hear from a mate. But also true!

Davidson also mentioned in the set that his mum, a school nurse, has been taunted by students singing the track as she walked down the hallway. “Me, I get it, but my mom?

The set was Davidson’s first since posting a troubling note to Instagram two weeks ago, speaking about his struggle with mental health: “i really don’t want to be on this earth anymore. i’m doing my best to stay here for you but i actually don’t know how much longer i can last. all i’ve ever tried to do was help people. just remember i told you so ”.

Here’s a few takeaways: leave Pete’s mum alone. Davidson knows ‘Thank U, Next’ is a bop, and that Grande could’ve made him look much, much worse. Considering the quality of the Louis C.K. content in the same set, he’s doing okay, but just, you know, be KIND please. Okay, that’s all.

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