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Pete Davidson recalled how his first Saturday Night Live sketch “bombed”
The comedian revealed that he was “so excited” to star alongside Jim Carrey in the sketch, but it did not resonate well with the audience
“The sketch bombed to high heavens. And it’s a long one, like it’s six minutes,” Davidson said
Pete Davidson is looking back at how his first Saturday Night Live sketch “bombed.”
The comedian, 31, revealed in the July 28 episode of Hot Ones that his first “real” sketch on the long-running TV series was with Jim Carrey and it did not resonate well with the audience.
“My first real sketch Jim Carrey was hosting. I was so excited because he’s Jim Carrey, one of the legends, and we wrote this sketch where it’s like a zombie apocalypse,” Davidson said.
The Bupkis star described the skit, titled “Zombie Apocalypse High School,” saying that he was playing the zombie son of Carrey’s character – who was not a zombie.
“The sketch bombed to high heavens. And it’s a long one, like it’s six minutes. I’m eating d—. And the only thing that made people laugh, there was like one scene, one part where I was supposed to, like, try to attack Jim and he hits me with a bat and that got a pop,” Davidson remembered.
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Pete Davidson and Jim Carrey on ‘SNL’
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From there, Carrey attempted to recover the sketch by continuing to hit his costar with the prop.
“Jim is a comic so he knows if that works… so the rest of the sketch he just keeps wailing on me with this NERF bat, and then it started to hurt.”
As for how Davidson responded, he said, “At one point, as a zombie, I went ‘Argh, no more.'”
Despite the quick save, the actor still does not have positive memories of the skit. “It’s online if you want to watch a 20-year-old crumble with his idol,” he added.
The episode was part of the show’s 40th season in 2014. Carrey hosted the episode with musical guest Iggy Azalea.
Davidson was a player on the late-night comedy show for eight seasons until 2022.
He made an appearance during the show’s 50th anniversary celebration, reprising his infamous Chad character in a digital skit alongside original cast member, Laraine Newman.
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Pete Davidson on ‘SNL’
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In February 2025, the actor, who recently premiered his new horror movie The Home, recalled looking back on his SNL audition on an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Davidson said he was “forced” to watch the episode for Peacock’s SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night docuseries, and admitted, “I teared up a little bit because, you know, I’m like 20 there, so it’s before all the bad stuff happened.”
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