Pete Davidson is now 33 years old — the same age his father, FDNY firefighter Scott Davidson, was when he died responding to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. The comedian says reaching that age, while also becoming a parent himself, has changed how he processes his father’s death ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
“I thought, ‘Oh, he was an old guy. He’s 33,'” Davidson told the New York Post. “But now I’m there, and I have a kid, and that would be like my kid not having her dad.”
Davidson’s daughter, Scottie, was born in December to the comedian and his ex-girlfriend, Elsie Hewitt. The name is a tribute to his father, whose nickname was Scotty. “It was really cool that Elsie also wanted to name her Scottie,” Davidson said. “My dad’s name was Scott, but his nickname was Scotty. When she arrived, we both looked at her and were like, ‘She looks like a Scottie.’ It’s nice to keep that name alive.”
This year, Davidson is marking the anniversary by joining Jon Stewart for a comedy benefit at Madison Square Garden. He said the day will carry extra weight because he’ll spend it with his daughter. “So, this year is extra tough, but also extra beautiful because I get to spend the day with Scottie,” he said. “It’ll be very healing and special.”
He also said the benefit is a chance to “reclaim” the day. “And not be in the middle of 12 documentaries that are so sad and rehash it,” he said.
Memories of a father lost young
Davidson has said previously, on Theo Von’s podcast, that his father’s fire company was the first truck to cross the bridge into lower Manhattan that morning. “So they were the first truck over there and pretty much the whole house died, which is sad, but at least he died with his pals,” Davidson said.
He described his father as “f—ing hilarious.” “My memories are few and far between because I was 7, but I just remember laughing a lot, him being pretty jacked and smoking a lot of cigarettes, and driving a Subaru Impreza. That’s all I remember,” he said. He recalled his father always wearing a big smile, and said old friends who share stories about him still light up when they talk about him.
Because he was so young at the time, Davidson said the full weight of what happened didn’t hit him until later. “I was really young, so I didn’t know what the f— happened, so it hit me later. Like when I was in college, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m pretty angry about this,'” he said.
Davidson said he keeps his father’s badge and chain — used to identify his father’s remains after the attack, since so many victims were badly burned — locked in a safe rather than out in the open, out of fear he might otherwise lose it. He also has his father’s jacket, which he once displayed at home but eventually took down, saying it risked becoming “a depressing reminder” if seen every day. He noted that his mother keeps photographs of his father throughout her house, which he described as feeling “kind of haunting.”
Davidson told the Post he hasn’t decided how he’ll eventually explain his grandfather’s death to his own daughter. “Luckily, I have some time,” he said. “Honestly, this year is way harder than it’s been in a really long time because I have Scottie, and now I’m the age that my dad was when he died. So I’m just kind of like, ‘Holy s–t.'”
The day itself
In a 2023 appearance on the “Real Ones” podcast, Davidson recalled that his father had told him he’d pick him up from school on September 11, 2001, but it was his mother who came instead — and she didn’t tell him what had happened for three days. He said his mother was 30 at the time. “I wouldn’t know what the f— to do and that’s why, when I get older, I’m like, ‘Man, my mom was awesome. I was like f—, she really loves me, like d–n, like f—, that was like rough,'” he said. “She kept telling me ‘Dad’s at work, coming home,’ whatever. I had no idea.”
He said his mother told him he was grounded and barred from watching television, but that he turned it on one night anyway. “And I just saw my dad on TV … And they’re like ‘these are all the firemen that are like dead and all that s—,'” he said.
On memes and memory
Davidson also said he’s troubled by how younger people online sometimes treat 9/11 as meme material rather than history. “It’s this weird thing that happens in our country where a tragedy over time becomes a holiday,” he told the Post. “And then sometimes I know the youth on the internet uses 9/11 memes as jokes. Someone will be like, ‘This song’s fire,’ and then they’ll post the towers … and we’re the ones that have to see that s— all the time,” he said.
Still, he acknowledged the impulse behind public remembrance from people with no personal connection to the attacks. “And it’s very nice that people that have nothing to do with it post a photo on that day, and they’ll never forget,” he added. “But it’s also like, you guys have no f—ing idea, actually.”
