Luenell apologizes to Pete

Comedian and actress Luenell is issuing an apology to Pete Davidson after an awkward segment on Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney in which she appeared alongside Pete Davidson, Henry Winkler, and Raymundo Perez-Plascencia. But it was evident that throughout the taping, Pete was visibly uncomfortable. 

At first, Luenell was grilling him on his dating life, inquiring about how he was able to land some of the women he has in his past, which include Kim Kardashian, Kate Beckinsale, Ariana Grande, and his current girlfriend, model Elsie Hewitt.

“To me, you’re just an average guy, regular guy, but you continuously pull all these bad bitches, right? ... So, since I don’t get it, I want to know the mystique,” she said, alluding to the fact that she’d like to see for herself.

This conversation ended in her declaring that she did not want to sleep with him, per se, but did want to go on a date with him. She even requested that he ask his current girlfriend if he could take her on a date, which he begrudgingly agreed to, saying, “If that’s what it takes to stop this, yeah.”

Over the course of the episode, things progressed in a more inappropriate direction, and one particular portion of the show had the stars in blindfolds, at which point she began tickling Pete’s leg. It’s unclear what prompted her apology, but it came in the form of an exclusive statement to PEOPLE, which read:

“I admit, I was tickling Pete’s leg during a segment of Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney; however, I did not mean to make Pete uncomfortable. I sincerely apologize. It was all done in jest,” she said. “I hope Pete will forgive me, and I’m still willing to go out on a date with him if he so chooses. And I promise I won’t touch him again unless he wants me to!” 

According to PEOPLE, Pete wasn’t necessarily bothered by the questions she was asking at first about his past relationships, despite appearing to be uncomfortable, and recently sharing some revelations about how he feels when his dating life garners attention. He recently described the scrutiny over his love life as ‘humiliating’ and ‘upsetting’, saying:

"It was pretty humiliating and upsetting, honestly…everyone is dating everyone and it’s Hollywood. But because I’m ugly, they wrote about me. I was harassed for like, five years and it made my life a living hell," he revealed to Page Six.

Essentially, Luenell struck the same tone that he’s called out by simultaneously criticizing and reducing him, but expressing some vested interest mixed with confusion as it pertained to his dating life. And while this part may have been par for the course when appearing on a show with other comedians, Luenell being emboldened enough to caress him the way she did while they were blindfolded certainly came as an uncomfortable and unwelcome surprise.

Some social media users are criticizing Pete over his discomfort, citing some of the topics he’s turned into comedy over the course of his career, which include making a joke at the Laugh Factory about the Manchester bombing attack at Ariana Grande’s concert, which left 22 people dead and hundreds injured, and discussing his dad’s death on 9/11 in his standup appearances. But so much of how this has played out, from his obvious discomfort on stage to some of the social media reactions trying to invalidate both his feelings and experience mirrors an experience we often only associate women with having.

A lot of women can relate to being hit on by someone more than 30 years our senior, their unwillingness or inability to accept non-verbal cues of discomfort, and therefore continuing to persist. But by far, what I relate to the most is him not saying, during the middle of the taping, “Hey, you’re making me uncomfortable,” likely because he didn’t want to be that person.

Anyone who is familiar with Luenell’s particular style of comedy may not see what she did as surprising. Some of her older bits include her discussing her retirement from sex, that time she accidentally burnt her vagina. And there was also this bit which included conversations about oral sex, vibrators, and any and everything in between. So yes, raunchy is very much her style – and while there may certainly be an audience for that type of comedy, and for her, this simply wasn’t it. 

Also, it’s worth noting that it’s one thing to stand on a stage by yourself and be raunchy, where you are the butt of your own jokes. It’s another thing to continuously try to use other people as props in your comedy and go as far as touching them to elicit laughs. That requires some sort of consent, and this is where comedians having good instincts come in.

So often, timing is listed as the single most important thing in a comedian’s arsenal. And while timing is crucial, it’s also imperative that you have the ability, the instinct, to read the room, be it your entire audience or the other comedian sitting next to you during a taping. In addition to that, you have to be able to be able to pivot. If you’re only funny when you’re talking about sex and vibrators, perhaps you’re just not as well-rounded of a comedian as you think you are. Laughter isn’t worth it when you have to pay for it with this much discomfort.