NEED TO KNOW
Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special was a star-studded affair. But for the comedians onstage, that wasn’t exactly a good thing.
The February 16th event brought dozens of SNL alums and Hollywood A-listers to 30 Rock in New York City to celebrate the late-night sketch comedy series and its creator Lorne Michaels.
A few of the nearly 100 celebrities in attendance included Cher, Meryl Streep, Kevin Costner, Jon Hamm, plus SNL stars like Eddie Murphy, Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey.
According to Pete Davidson, A-list names didn’t make for a great audience.
Chris Haston/NBC
On Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday, August 6, Seth Meyers asked Davidson, 31, which of the two was more “nerve-wracking” while at the 50th celebration: being on stage or being in the audience “while everybody’s watching you?”
“Well, as you know from SNL 40, terrible audience,” he said, to which Meyers agreed, “Yeah, terrible audience.”
“It’s a terrible audience,” Davidson said. “It’s just famous people, and famous people only like themselves.”
Again, Meyers agreed, and Davidson joked that he, too, is “guilty” of only liking himself.
“I remember, when the pre-tape was playing, you were the only one laughing,” Meyers joked. “We were like, ‘Oh, he’s coming in way too hot.'”
Davidson was in two sketches in the three-hour special.
He joined John Mulaney and a slew of other alums in a musical tribute to New York City and reprised his character Chad with Laraine Newman in a pre-taped skit.
NBC
While the audience may not have been up to par, Davidson’s seating arrangement was very exciting.
He was seated next to Streep, 76, during the show, and he explained how he found out about the setup: “You know, in typical SNL fashion, they don’t tell you anything. You don’t even know what’s going on.”
“I get to my seat and I just look, and I’m like, ‘This can’t be right.’ And it was Meryl Streep,” he said. “And I just sat down, I was like, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that I’m sitting next to you. You’re the best.’ And she was very nice, she was like, ‘No, no, no.'”
“Meryl rules,” he said.
SNL 40 was a memorable experience for Davidson, too, though, for a similarly pinch-me interaction.
It was his first year on the show when the 40th anniversary was celebrated, and he recalled on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this year that he “only had one job.”
“Me and Leslie Jones — the great Leslie Jones — we were gonna introduce a category or whatever,” he said.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
They got a five-second countdown to their segment, Davidson said, and all of a sudden, “Leonardo DiCaprio tugged my shirt.”
“And he had his big Revenant beard,” Davidson said. “And he just went, ‘I like what you’re doing.'”
Right after that, Davidson and Jones got their cue and the cameras picked up for the introduction, leaving him no time to even process the compliment.
