What's the Deal with the Feud Between Colin Jost and Pete Davidson?

Several tabloid outlets are reporting that Pete Davidson bought a $20,000 Cartier watch for Colin Jost, framing it as an olive branch after an alleged estrangement between the two. In reality, Davidson reportedly gave Jost the watch when he got out of rehab last summer.

The bigger question is: What caused the supposed feud between Jost and Davidson? This isn’t the first time their falling out has been referenced in the media. Tabloid reports have suggested that Davidson wasn’t welcome back at SNL because of the tension, and that their friendship had been strained over their Staten Island ferry venture. About six months ago, rumors swirled that Jost had completely cut Davidson out of his life and refused to be seen in the same room with him.

No one knows for sure what sparked the feud, but many speculate it’s tied to the ferry, which remains docked and unusable. Jost himself has called the venture “the dumbest and least thought-through purchase,” which may have rubbed Davidson the wrong way.

Davidson has long been sensitive about his place in the SNL ecosystem. Even while he was on the show, he seemed to feel like an outsider—especially regarding Weekend Update. Dating back to 2020, Davidson made it clear that he wasn’t in on many of the jokes the show made at his expense.

“I personally think I should be done with that show because they make fun of me on it. I’m like, cold open, political punchlines. I’m like, weekend update jokes. When I’m not there, they’ll be like, ‘Huh huh huh, Pete’s a f—ing jerk face.’ And you’re like, ‘Whose side are you on?’ I have a weird feeling in that building where I don’t know whose team they’re playing for really, if I’m the joke or I’m in on the joke.”

Most of those jokes aired on Update, and—at the time—Jost was the head writer, so it’s reasonable to assume Davidson harbored some resentment toward him. Whether that’s directly related to the feud is unclear, but Davidson has shown a sensitivity to how he’s been portrayed by Jost and the rest of SNL, and that may have snowballed into something bigger.

That said, Davidson’s well-documented unreliability could be a factor. He reportedly gave Jost the watch after getting out of rehab, and before that, there were whispers that he was missing meetings and canceling projects. Hell, he essentially self-canceled his own show, Bupkis, back in March of last year. One of the projects Davidson dropped might have been Worst Man, a wedding comedy he was supposed to star in alongside Jost, which at one point had Christopher Storer (The Bear) attached as director.

Whatever caused the rift, it must have been bad if Davidson felt the need to drop $20,000 on a watch to patch things up. Here’s hoping Michael Che works the feud into the next joke swap.