How did Pete Davidson lose his father? The ‘SNL’ opening monologue, explained

Beloved Saturday Night Live veteran Pete Davidson returned to the show as a host in the season 49 premiere. Davidson joined the show in 2014 as the “resident young person.” After eight seasons, he left the show to pursue a career in film, TV, and comedy.

The cold open for SNL is usually some sort of spoof or sketch on current events. However, in this week’s cold open, Davidson took to the stage to address the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The 29-year-old discussed the devasting sites he had seen in the media, specifically of Israeli and Palestinian children suffering as a result of the war. He joked that while he may not be the public’s #1 pick to address such an issue, he was familiar with experiencing loss and tragedy as a child.

Davidson famously lost his father when he was just 7 due to the 9/11 attacks. According to Today, the comedian’s father, Scott Davidson, was a fireman who was called to rescue citizens from the attacks on the World Trade Center. At the time, Davidson’s mom didn’t tell him what had happened and grounded him from the TV to keep him from seeing the sites of what had happened.

In his opening dialogue, he said that at the time neither he nor his mother knew how to help him deal with the loss. His mom finally brought him a tape of what she thought was a Disney film but turned out to be Eddie Murphy’s Delirious. As soon as she realized what it was she started to take out the tape before noticing that Pete was laughing for the first time in weeks.

He went on to say that through his experiences, he had found that comedy was one of the best ways to find one’s way out of tragedy. With that in mind, he dedicated October 14th’s show to that cause, in hopes of generating laughter that would help to heal.

After addressing current world events, Davidson moved on to deliver a more lighthearted opening monologue about bonding with his sister, Staten Island, and his comedian origin story. Sketches later in the show referenced his very public dating life and spoofed current events regarding Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in the football world.

In classic fashion, Davidson earned an uproar of laughs all evening. His performances were punctuated by Ice Spice‘s SNL debut. Fans can catch the episode on Peacock or watch Bad Bunny as the host and musical guest on NBC next week.