Pete Davidson sparks backlash over crude joke about late Charlie Kirk

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Pete Davidson sparked backlash after making an explicit and insulting joke about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk during Netflix’s ‘The Roast of Kevin Hart’ at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 10.

Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed while he was speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in September 2025.

Pete Davidson makes vile joke about Charlie Kirk

Davidson’s Charlie Kirk joke came during a comedy roast, where comedians intentionally insult each other for shock value and laughs.

The comedian made offensive roast jokes aimed at Tony Hinchcliffe, where he mocked Hinchcliffe’s appearance as creepy and unsuitable to be around children. He also compared Hinchcliffe to a doll sometimes used in abuse investigations.

While roasting Hinchcliffe, Davidson compared him to Charlie Kirk with a vulgar joke suggesting that both men had performed explicit acts on camera. The joke was not based on facts; it was simply an insulting and explicit roast line.

"Tony reminds me of Charlie Kirk in that he’s definitely been on camera letting a guy unload in his throat,” the comedian continued.

Davidson’s final line referenced his past public feud with Kanye West. By calling Kanye a “gay Nazi,” he was mocking Kanye’s antisemitic controversies.

“Kill Tony, please. Someone f***ing kill Tony," Davidson continued. "Tony, nothing you say tonight will hurt my feelings. I was in a beef with Kanye, so I’ve taken shots from better gay Nazis."

Davidson’s jokes on Charlie Kirk sparks backlash

While Pete Davidson may have intended to make the audience laugh, his explicit jokes about Charlie Kirk did not sit well with social media users, many of whom criticized him for being insensitive about political violence and misusing free speech.

‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ producer, Blake Neff, appreciated people for calling out the joke and urged them to address other “bad taste” jokes against Charlie too.

“I didn't like it, and I'm glad the audience wasn't into it, but there are other 'jokes' we've seen that are clearly a lot more hateful in intent than Pete's, and a few bad-taste jokes about Charlie are the price we have to pay for how iconic he has become in American culture,” the producer wrote in an X post.

One X user wrote, "Our Founding Fathers never intended Freedom of Speech for vomiting your foul classless demented venom under the guise of comedy or any other venue it intended for us to be able to voice our opinion and ideas and against injustices and other public and government matters."

Another user wrote, "Pete Davidson just showed what kind of person he is. Pathetic, sick, no decency. He has a right to say it and I have a right to criticize him and never listen to him ever again."

One user revisited the tragic death of Davidson’s father and suggested that he should not be making jokes about a man whose children are going to grow up without a father given that the comedian himself grew up without a father.

"What makes this even worse is that he lost his father on 9/11. He understands the pain of growing up without a dad, but he’s joking about a man whose children will now grow up without theirs,” the user wrote in a post on Monday, May 11.

One more user reacted saying that Davidson was making desperate attempts to stay relevant. 

"Davidson is an irrelevant trying to get attention and work any way he can. The more disgustingly vile you are the more the left loves it because that's what they are."

One more user lashed out at Pete Davidson and accused him of cashing his father's death in 9/11.