Pete Davidson on Saturday Night Live

Stand-up routine after addressing the atrocities in Israel

Pete Davidson talked about trying to bond with his sister by watching Game of Thrones, growing up in Staten Island and the first time he ever performed stand-up during his monologue on Saturday Night Live last night.

The programme returned to NBC last night having been delayed by the Hollywood writers’ strike.

And with civilians in Israel being targeted by Hamas, and the country hitting back at Gaza in force, it was not the funniest week to be making a comeback.

The show opened not with a sketch but with guest host Davidson - until recently an SNL cast member, addressing ‘the horrible images and stories from Israel and Gaza’ – with the stand-up commenting: ‘And I know what you’re thinking, Who better to comment on it than Pete Davidson?

‘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.

The comic’s father Scott was a firefighter who died in New York on 9/11.

‘I saw so many terrible pictures this week. 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 like that, especially not kids.

‘After my dad died, my mom tried pretty much everything she can do to cheer me up. I remember one day when I was eight. She got me what she thought was a Disney movie. But it was actually the Eddie Murphy stand up special Delirious And we played it in the car on the way home.

‘When she heard the things 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. I don’t understand that. I really don’t and I never will. But sometimes comedy is really the only way forward through tragedy.

‘You know, my heart is with everyone whose lives have been destroyed this week. But tonight, I’m gonna do what I’ve always done in the face of tragedy, and that’s try to be funny.’