On Saturday, May 21, 2022, Pete Davidson announced that he would be leaving Saturday Night Live. The actor and stand-up comedian gave his best to the sketch comedy show for eight years and now is leaving to start bigger things with his career.

Saturday Night Live has a tradition of being an excellent career-launching platform for many A-list movie stars and comedians, and Pete Davidson has all the hallmark signs of being a rising star. He’s had a solid stand-up career. He starred in a Judd Apatow film. And he’s dating Kim Kardashian, which might not technically count as a career accomplishment, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.

Pete Davidson’s brand of comedy makes light of the tragic parts of his life so that one might process grief with it. He often talks about being a stoner and taking mushrooms. The darker side of these experiences has previously reared its ugly head, and Davidson has slipped into rehab before. But he’s always come out and been able to keep working. With this step out of SNL hailed as a bit of “growing up” for the star, the young comedian is in a perfect position and has all the potential to become Hollywood’s next big stoner comedian.

Pete Davidson is Set for Success

Machine Gun Kelly
Netflix

Pete Davidson suffered terrible trauma early in his life. At the age of 7, he was forced to cope with his father's death, who died responding to the 9/11 attacks as a member of the New York City Fire Department. While he later admitted the troubles of dealing with such serious grief, Davidson still managed to graduate high school and enter college before deciding to pursue a career in comedy full time. After starting by doing stand-up at a local bowling alley, Davidson eventually pushed himself to further his career and began taking bit parts in MTV and Comedy Central shows.

After doing stand-up for a few years, he got noticed by Amy Schumer, who recommended him to Judd Apatow. Apatow put the young Davidson in a scene of his movie Trainwreck. On the set, he met Bill Hader, on whose word he auditioned for Saturday Night Live. He got the job in 2014, making him one of the youngest people to ever add their comedy to the act and the first person born in the '90s to join the cast. Eventually, Apatow would work with Davidson again, having him star in The King of Staten Island, a semi-biographical film about Davidson’s life.

Related: In Defense of the Stoner Movie

Over his time in SNL, Davidson still did some old shows on which he got his start. In 2017 on the set of Wild ‘N Out, he met Machine Gun Kelly when Jeff Tremaine put him on the spot, and Davidson rapped every word of Kelly’s song "Breaking News." The two stars would later become close while filming the Motley Crue biography The Dirt. Now they talk about being best friends.

Famously in 2018, Davidson posted on Instagram about the state of his mental health after breaking up with Ariana Grande, and MGK got the first flight to New York to support his friend. The break-up story and crazy journey out of darkness likely served as part of the inspiration for Machine Gun Kelly’s Good Mourning, in which Pete Davidson played a role.

Pete Davidson's Future

Good Mourning movie
Briarcliff Entertainment/Open Road Films

All of Davidson’s connections in Hollywood are bound to yield a profound amount of work in the future. But in which direction will he go? His style appeals to that specific but popular genre that people have come to know as stoner comedy. Davidson is very open about smoking marijuana and micro-dosing mushrooms. But that’s not all it takes to be a stoner comedian.

His style pokes fun at the more pathetic parts of his life. Or when parts of his life were pathetic. Before he moved out, he would often joke about how he lived in his mother’s basement, a staple of any pothead who is typically unsuccessful. And a lot of his stories involve things that happened to him while he was high in public.

The stoner comedian creates humor out of real-life experiences that come from being stoned, and Davidson seems to know how to do this well. If he had been part of that Seth Rogen/James Franco circle of celebrities, he might’ve starred in Pineapple Express.

Related: Edie Falco to Play Pete Davidson's Mother in Peacock's Bupkis

But now we see a new generation of comedy coming to its head. And Pete Davidson and Machine Gun Kelly have that stoner-buddy energy that might produce some good projects in the future. Despite the failure of Good Mourning in theaters, both of the stars are set on the cusp of success when they transition from performing for other people to performing for themselves. Davidson especially is in a position that is ripe to bear comedy fruit.

Even if he doesn’t create content in the traditional fashion of making movies, the strange love triangle between him, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West will secure his position in the public eye for the immediate future. He is undoubtedly a comic with a lot of potential. How he chooses to use it will decide what position he takes in the Hollywood pantheon.