Pete Davidson is the new Lenny Bruce. His latest comedy special Turbo Fonzarelli, shot in B&W for Netflix begins with a blistering routine about drugs:
"I just turned 30 this week... I had to stop doing hard drugs because you can't be a drug addict in your 30s... Doing drugs in your 20s is fine, it's just an excuse, 'I'm finding myself.' It's cute. Do a little bump off an iPad with your friends, it's adorable. Then one of your boys has a kid and you're holding it and you're like, 'I think I'm a drug addict.'"
Then the SNL alum describes his addiction to ketamine, which he referenced in the last episode of Bupkis:
"I was on a magical drug for the last two and a half to three years called ketamine. It was amazing, what a time! If you don't know what ketamine is, you probably did it accidentally once if you were a cokehead. You'd be doing coke all night, then you do one bump and go, 'Whoa, this is not cocaine.'"
He goes on to tell a story about attending Aretha Frankllin's funeral on K:
"I was so high I thought it wouild be a good idea to go up to her family and say, 'I'm here to pay my R-E-S-P-E-C-T-S.'"
Davidson spends most of the rest of the special riffing on his mother Amy and a stalker. At one point Davidson jokes about the car accident he had last March in Beverly Hills when he hit a hydrant and a house: "In my defense, the house cut me off."
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Unlike Bruce, he doesn't offer much as far as social commentary, but for this era Davidson – who learned he was half-Jewish when he was 25, but was raised Catholic – is as close as you'll get. Bruce was a drug addict who openly discussed his foibles in his act.
Davidson canceled his most recent stand-up gigs and has no upcoming shows scheduled.
"If you don't know what ketamine is, you probably did it accidentally once if you were a cokehead."