Tweet joking that everyone knew Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson would split, with a hand-raising reaction GIF

Pete Davidson

2018public figure / meme subjectsemi-active

Published September 21, 2026

Pete Davidson is a Staten Island comedian whose chaotic dating life and openly troubled Instagram presence made him one of the most memed public figures of the late 2010s and early 2020s. His whirlwind 2018 engagement to Ariana Grande launched the 'Big Dick Energy' meme, and his 2022 romance with Kim Kardashian earned him a viral hate-nickname from Kanye West that dominated Instagram feeds for weeks.

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Overview

Davidson exists as a meme in the way most tabloid figures do not. Rather than a single image macro or catchphrase, fans built a running joke out of his tattoos, his shocked-looking eyes, his self-deprecating SNL sketches, and the recurring headline of another famous woman confirming that yes, they are dating him1. The core template treats his romances as a persistent internet mystery of how a lanky Staten Island comic keeps pairing off with A-list pop stars and reality TV royalty.

Each new relationship spins off its own micro-meme cycle. The Ariana Grande engagement generated 'Big Dick Energy' via a Grande tweet in June 20185. The Kim Kardashian relationship produced Kanye West's 'Skete' nickname and a wave of doctored Marvel posters in February 20225. When the breakups arrive, his Instagram meltdowns and the NYPD wellness checks that follow become their own tabloid subplot34. Davidson also weaponized the format himself, cutting SNL Weekend Update segments where he narrated his own tabloid coverage with a shrug6.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter / Instagram (viral spread)
Date
2018

Peter Michael Davidson was born November 16, 1993 in Staten Island, New York5. His father, an FDNY firefighter, died in the September 11 attacks, and Davidson has spoken publicly about the resulting trauma alongside diagnoses of Crohn's disease and borderline personality disorder2. He started standup at 16, made his television debut on MTV's Failosophy in February 2013, and joined Saturday Night Live as a featured player on September 27, 2014, at age 205.

His mainstream tabloid profile began climbing in early 2018 when he and Ariana Grande went Instagram-official in May, weeks after her split from Mac Miller1. Grande and Davidson confirmed their engagement on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 20, 2018, with Davidson telling Jimmy Fallon he 'felt like I won a contest' and comparing his new street-level fame to the Derek Jeter Nike commercial where strangers tip their hats1. The engagement collapsed on October 14 of the same year, and TMZ was first to report the breakup5.

How It Spread

The first meme to attach itself to Davidson was 'Big Dick Energy,' which emerged on June 22, 2018 after Grande alluded to his physical proportions in a since-deleted tweet5. Twitter user @babyvietcong applied the phrase to Davidson the same day in a post that pulled more than 24,000 retweets and 162,000 likes according to KYM's archive5. The acronym BDE outlived the couple and became a general descriptor for confident, unbothered energy across Twitter and lifestyle press.

After the October 2018 breakup, Davidson's own Instagram became the meme surface. Fans set up a mock GoFundMe framing him as newly homeless, and a tweet documenting the joke by user @gnightngos passed 3,500 retweets and 10,000 likes as archived on KYM5. In early December, Davidson posted a lengthy anti-bullying statement addressing what he called nine months of online harassment tied to the Grande relationship2. On December 15, 2018, he posted a note reading 'I really don't want to be on this earth anymore,' prompting SNL producer Lorne Michaels to pull his sketches for the evening while the NYPD conducted a wellness check at NBC Studios3. Davidson still appeared onstage that night to introduce musical guests Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson and Sean Ono Lennon4.

The second act came with Kim Kardashian. Davidson and Kardashian kissed onstage in an Aladdin sketch during Kardashian's SNL hosting debut on October 9, 202157. A photo of them holding hands on a Knott's Berry Farm rollercoaster leaked on October 29, and Davidson confirmed the relationship to People magazine on February 7, 20225. Six days later, Kardashian's ex Kanye West posted a Captain America: Civil War meme photoshopping himself and his friends squaring off against Davidson, coining the nickname 'Skete' in the caption5. The Skete edits spread rapidly across Instagram meme accounts, and West kept the beef running with follow-up posts for several weeks. On March 16, 2022, Kardashian revealed that Davidson had branded himself with her name and gotten a tattoo reading 'My Girl Is a Lawyer' on his shoulder5. Davidson left SNL at the end of the show's 47th season in May 2022, bidding farewell in a Weekend Update sketch58. Specific viral tweets from the 2018 fallout survive mainly through screenshots archived on Know Your Meme rather than as live posts5.

Timeline

1993-11-16

Peter Michael Davidson is born in Staten Island, New York.

2014-09-27

Davidson debuts as a featured player on Saturday Night Live at age 20.

2021-10-09

Davidson and Kim Kardashian kiss during an Aladdin sketch on Kardashian's SNL hosting debut.

How to Use This Meme

The Pete Davidson meme is mostly reactive rather than a fill-in-the-blank template. When a new celebrity relationship or wildly out-of-league pairing hits the tabloids, users typically post a Davidson photo with captions along the lines of 'the Pete Davidson effect' or 'BDE strikes again' to comment on how an ordinary-looking man ended up with a superstar partner5. The 'Skete' variant of the meme is used more aggressively, often in Kanye-adjacent shitposts pitting rap figures against Davidson5. His deadpan Weekend Update self-roasts are also cut into short clips and reshared on TikTok whenever new gossip drops.

Frequently Asked Questions