Why Does Pete Davidson Keep Making Jokes About His Breakup With Ariana Grande?
Pete Davidson can’t stop, won’t stop making jokes about his breakup with Ariana Grande. On the one hand, this shouldn’t surprise people: He’s a comedian on Saturday Night Live, after all, and has a history of saying things that aren’t the most appropriate. But the fact he’s being so casual about this high-profile uncoupling is a bit perplexing considering how intense they were just a few weeks ago.
He reportedly first broke his silence on Grande while performing at a Los Angeles benefit on Saturday, October 20. “Um, I’ve been covering a bunch of tattoos; that’s fun,” Davidson said, nodding to all the couple tats he and Grande received during their whirlwind relationship. “I’m fucking 0 for 2 in the tattoo [department].”
Davidson allegedly ended this set with a joke about needing a new roommate now that he’s moved out of the $16 million apartment Grande bought for them. “Does anybody have any open rooms? Looking for a roommate?” he said, according to E! News.
He’s at it again this week. One of the promos for this weekend’s Saturday Night Live features Davidson making a quip about his short-lived engagement to Grande. In the 40-second video, which we included below, Davidson asks musical guest Maggie Rogers to marry him, and she curtly responds “No.” “0 for 3,” Davidson then remarks, a not-so-subtle jab at his relationship track record. (He seriously dated Cazzie David for two years before starting things with Grande.)
The video rubbed many people the wrong way—including Grande, who posted a few pointed tweets shortly after it went live. “For somebody who claims to hate relevancy u sure love clinging to it huh,” she wrote.
So what gives? Why is Davidson making all these jokes even though it’s clearly upsetting Grande, not to mention her legion of fans? One source tells Entertainment Tonight that he’s using humor as a defense mechanism. “His friends think he is embarrassed by the breakup and that he has to overcompensate by making jokes about their relationship, because, days before they split, he was saying they would never break up,” the source revealed.
But another source directly contradicts this and says Davidson isn’t embarrassed about anything. “He’s obviously hurt it didn’t work out but is doing his best to move on. Anyone would be hurt after an engagement was broken off,” they said. “Pete joked about him and Ariana [when they were together]. So joking about breaking up and their relationship is not new.”
I don’t personally know Pete Davidson or Ariana Grande, so offering legitimate suggestions for how they should navigate their breakup feels silly. I mean, this is a union that featured baby pigs and “Honest to God Knock Me Out” tattoos and approximately 9,000 bean bags; it’s far beyond the understanding of us mere mortals. There’s a song on Grande’s album literally called “Pete Davidson.” Your guess for what these two should do about this messy situation is as good as mine.
That being said, a good first step might be to…not say anything for a while. Grande has since deleted her shady tweets, which suggests she might not be ready to talk about the breakup. Davidson should probably follow suit—out of respect for her and, ya know, Piggy Smalls. Think of the pig, Pete!
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