Saturday Night Live Newbie Devon Walker Doesn't Mind Being Compared To Pete Davidson
When Pete Davidson wound up on "Saturday Night Live" he didn't expect to stick around too long, having joined in 2014 at just 20 years old with minimal experience in sketch comedy. According to the standup comedian, when he auditioned, showrunner Lorne Michaels told him, "I don't think you're right for this show, so let's screw this up together." Soon to star in Peacock's "Bupkis," Davidson has, in his own words become "hugely successful while barely showing up to work," referring to his sporadic appearances on "SNL" throughout his eight year run.
That success allowed him to leave the show at the end of its 47th season to explore other opportunities. At the same time, the long-running series was undergoing a major transition, with seven other members of the ensemble departing between the 47th and 48th season. As Michaels told the New York Times, this "reinvention" had a lot to do with the fact the pandemic had put cast members in a position "where no one could really leave, because there were no jobs." Once things opened up, multiple performers moved on.
As always, Michaels hired several new cast members between seasons, one of which some viewers seemed to think was basically a Pete Davidson replacement. Devon Walker, himself a standup comedian, was one of the four new "SNL" season 48 cast members, and as Entertainment Weekly reported, viewers "noted similarities between [Walker] and former cast member Davidson, including their shared sense of humor, laidback personalities, and even physical likeness." Some even compared Walker's first Weekend Update segment to Davidson's farewell Update segment, noticing the two dressed similarly and had the same relaxed demeanor ... I guess? Basically they both did observational comedy and came from the standup world, so people immediately started comparing them. Luckily, Walker doesn't seem to mind.
Devon Walker also does comedy
Devon Walker had already started building a career as a standup comedian when he was hired for "SNL," having been chosen for Comedy Central's "Up Next" showcase in 2017. He'd also been performing around New York City after moving there from his native Texas, while writing for Freeform's "Everything's Trash" and Netflix's "Big Mouth" in between. But when "SNL" went through its biggest transition year since 1995, when nine members of season 20's cast left the show, he found himself thrust into the world of sketch comedy.
Unlike in 2012, when "Saturday Night Live" added so many new cast members it became a joke, Walker was one of only four new hires, and had more of an opportunity to stand out in a cast that had shrunk from 21 cast members in season 47 to 15 in season 48. But almost immediately, the Pete Davidson comparisons started cropping up.
Thankfully, it didn't seem to bother Walker too much. The comedian told GQ he doesn't necessarily see the comparison but "people want to f*** that guy, so I guess that's nice." He went on to explain how he's trying to stay grounded at the beginning of his Studio 8H adventure, adding, "I'm trying to take exactly what's in front of me and figure out how to do that thing, and then move from there."
The Davidson comparisons are temporary
The extent of the similarity between Devon Walker and Pete Davidson seems to be that they both do standup and have a comparable observational and often self-deprecating style. And that's pretty much it from what I can tell. Both joined a show that typically poaches talent from the improv community — even though Lorne Michaels isn't a fan of improv on his show — and in that sense they both occupy a similar space within the history of "Saturday Night Live."
But as Michaels told the New York Times, Walker and the rest of the newly-added featured players are performers in their own right, regardless of who the internet compares them to:
"The new people could last for years. They're not load-bearing walls. They're not yet what they're going to be, but at least half of the fun of watching the show is watching people that are beginning and discovering them."
That's something that's not lost on Walker, who went on to tell GQ that he's glad to have been hired during a time when "SNL" was paring down its ever-expanding cast, saying:
"I feel like if we would've come in four, five, six, seven years ago, it would've been a lot tougher to be starting out. Especially for four new people to start out at once. I feel like it would've been harder. That's the cool thing about being here for this transitional period."
And once he's given more chances to showcase his own unique talents, those Pete Davidson comparisons will likely fade as people realize two performers can do observational standup while also being different artists.