Pete Davidson reflects on Israel-Hamas conflict in SNL cold open

Comedian Pete Davidson opened the first “Saturday Night Live” show back from the months-long writer’s strike with a monologue on the violence that has struck Israel and Gaza over the last week.

Davidson touched on his own experience with dealing with loved ones who died in terrorist attacks by reflecting on his father, Scott Davidson, who was a New York City firefighter who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks when he was seven years old. In his monologue, he talked about how comedy is “sometimes’ the only way to cope with tragedy.

“This week, we saw the horrible images and stories from Israel and Gaza. And, I know what you’re thinking, who better to comment on it than Pete Davidson?” he asked, which was met with laughter.

“Well, in a lot of ways, I am a good person to talk about it because when I was seven years old, my dad was killed in a terrorist attack. So, I know something about what that’s like,” he continued.

He said that seeing the photos of Israeli and Palestinian children suffering from the attacks this week brought him back to the aftermath of 9/11, when his mother was trying to take his mind off the attacks.

“I saw so many terrible pictures this week of children suffering – Israeli children and Palestinian children – and it took me back to a really horrible, horrible place. No one in this world deserves to suffer, especially not kids,” he said.

He described one instance where his mother had given him what she thought was a Disney movie to cheer him up, but instead, it was comedian Eddie Murphy’s stand-up special “Delirious.”

“We played it in the car on the way home and when she heard the things that Eddie Murphy was saying, she tried to take it away. But then she noticed something. For the first time in a long time I was laughing again,” he said. “I don’t understand it. I really don’t. I never will. But sometimes comedy is really the only way forward from tragedy.”

“My heart is with everyone whose lives have been destroyed this week. But tonight I’m going to do what I’ve always done in the face of tragedy and that’s try to be funny. Remember, I said try. And live from New York, it’s Saturday Night,” he concluded.

Davidson, a former member of SNL, was scheduled to host the late-night comedy show in May before the writer’s strike. The Saturday episode marked the return of the show from its six-month hiatus.