JULES HOEPTING
Design Editor
On May 3, Fredonia students and faculty scrolled through Instagram or Twitter and saw a post from Spectrum that caught their attention: “A Virtual Q and A with Pete Davidson” on May 6.
Davidson is one of the youngest hires at “Saturday Night Live” and Ariana Grande’s former fiance, and Spectrum somehow got the famous funnyman to answer Fredonian’s questions in a short amount of time. The news spread quickly.
What did that Q and A entail, exactly?
Essentially, it was two dudes who worked together hanging out online.
Leading the Q and A was another SNL cast member, Mikey Day, who asked Davidson questions from Fredonia students that were pre-approved by Spectrum.
Davidson was in his newly-purchased apartment, donned in a crew neck that read “essentials” and a ballcap promoting “Late Night with Seth Meyers” — an SNL alum.
Before the official questionnaire began, he was shooting a toy gun at the camera. Day was munching on chips in his self-proclaimed blandly decorated SNL dressing room.
In between questions ranging from “Can you pick up Mikey?” to “How do you become a writer on SNL?” Davidson and Day wove in and out of various vocal impressions and brainstormed ideas for future sketches.
The first question of the night was whether or not Davidson knew Fredonia existed. He did not. He claimed “Fredonia” sounded like the name of a village in “Game of Thrones.” He later claimed “Fredonia” sounded like a place with bad food, which spurred a sketch idea from Day about elementary school children getting excited about pancakes during a “breakfast for lunch” day at school.
Prompted, Davison went on to share his deathbed song “Life is a Highway” — the Rascal Flatts cover from “Cars” — and closed his eyes as the familiar upbeat guitar riff played.
Davidson’s least favorite celebrity? Jake Paul. Former cast member he wishes were still on SNL? Adam Sandler. Hogwarts house? Gryffindor. Major he would have pursued in college? Business management. Funniest Halloween group costume? Group costumes aren’t funny. Favorite movie? “The Grinch.”
This reminded Day and Davidson of that sketch where Davidson played The Grinch and how in an earlier take, Davidson couldn’t see through his contacts and read the cue cards — which is important, as cast members typically read off of hand-written cue cards.
It’s not that Day and Davidson fluffed themselves up by constantly mentioning their jobs on the 46-year-running live comedy sketch show, it’s just that it occupies so much of their lives.
When asked where Davidson wanted to go on vacation, he responded he’d like to go pretty much anywhere because he hadn’t gone on vacation since he started at SNL in 2014. Day agreed, and later on in the Q and A both men paused as an announcer listed off cast members that needed to go to set, listening for Mikey’s name.
Of course, being on SNL has its perks. Throughout the Q and A, Davidson and Day casually mentioned some of the people they’ve met. They reminisce on a sketch with Adele that got cut. They talked about how certain celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio don’t seem real when you meet them in-person.
Davidson’s also busy with several upcoming projects, including a slasher thriller, “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” and “Suicide Squad.” Despite being scheduled for interviews to talk about the latter movie, he is not allowed to reveal much about it.
When asked about his triple-digit tattoos, Davidson said he plans on removing most of them on his upper body but would like to ink up his legs because he is in his late 20s and has given up hope that his legs will get bigger.
He revealed that he plans on keeping a tattoo of his dad’s driver license, who died working as a firefighter during 9/11.
When asked if he wore jewelry, Davidson revealed he also “iced out” a fire department chain in memory of his dad, an accessory only the blue collar folks understood.
Davidson is hardly serious, but if you watch a bit of his comedy or watch him in most interviews, he is very transparent about how his father’s death greatly affected his life. Then, after a swift moment of seriousness, he’s back to his giggling self, going in and out a gag/proposed sketch about a stand-up comedian whose act consisted of repeating “go on and get” in a cartoonish voice for a few minutes.
As for giving advice, Davidson typically spews sarcastic takes, often mentioning his usage of marijuana.
A surprising bit of wisdom came out when asked about getting started in comedy and getting on SNL. Davidson advised people to find others who were doing what they wanted to be doing and to hang out with those people. He spent a good amount of time as a teenager hanging out with goofball comedians in their 30s, and wound up on SNL at age 20, after all.
Near the end of the Q and A, viewers got to see a more ordinary side of Davidson, as he called in his friend to verify if the bug in his room was a cricket.
He also showed viewers his puppy, Mabel, whom he claimed looked like an “old man,” or, more specifically, Christopher Walker. Mabel waved to Fredonians, saying hello.
At the end of the hour-long Q and A, the men remarked at how fun the chat was and acknowledged their surprise at how quickly the time had gone by.
“It’s been real, Fredonia,” Davidson concluded.