Lorne Michaels felt that BDE.
Pete Davidson admitted to having major impostor syndrome when he first started at “Saturday Night Live.” The comedian made the confession in Peacock’s docuseries “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” — which premiered Thursday and includes numerous “SNL” alums looking back at the iconic sketch show’s past as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
In the doc, the “King of Staten Island” star recalled making a weird request to the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, after his first season.
“After my first year, I actually called for a meeting with Lorne and I was like, ‘Please fire me,’ and he’s like, ‘Why?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t belong here. Everybody’s so talented and they don’t want to be my friend,’” Davidson recalled, per People.
As he laughed at himself, Davidson continued:
“Because I was a child. I was like, ‘Nobody wants to be my friend.’”
But it seems that Michaels saw something in Davidson that the comedian hadn’t yet seen in himself — and wasn’t about to let him go.
“And he said, ‘You don’t figure it out ’til your third or fourth year,’” Davidson recalled. “‘It’s just gonna suck for three or four years.’ And he was right.”
Davidson joined the show in 2014 when he was 20. He ended up staying on the show until 2022.
During his final episode, Davidson delivered a farewell message during the “Weekend Update” segment and gave Michaels a sweet shout-out. (See the video above.)
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“I appreciate ‘SNL’ always having my back and allowing me to work on myself and grow,” Davidson said at the time. “Thank you to Lorne for never giving up on me or judging me, even when everyone else was, and for believing in me and allowing me to have a place that I could call home with memories that will last a lifetime.”