On Weekend Update Pete Davidson did a segment related to the upcoming elections, where he shared his "first impressions" of candidates as they appeared on screen. Davidson made the mistake of choosing to make fun of a war wound that one of the candidates had suffered, saying ""You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate in Texas and not a hitman in a porno movie." He apologized after the joke didn't land quite as he'd hoped: "I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever. Whatever.”
There was, of course, backlash. Even the guy who go made fun of, Dan Crenshaw, posted a video where he addressed the situation, saying that although he didn't like the joke, he doesn't want an apology: “I want us to get away from this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks.”
A reaction that was more surprising came from Davidson's fellow SNL cast member, Keenan Thompson, who was asked about the incident while promoting the new Grinch movie that he's in:
My father's a veteran, Vietnam, and I personally would never necessarily go there, but it's tough when you're fishing for jokes — like that's how stand-ups feel like there's no real filters out there in the world when they're trying to go for a great joke or whatever and we try to respect that but at the same time, when you miss the mark, you're offending people so you have to really be a little more aware in my opinion.
He also said, of comedians, that "they're the ones who help us laugh through the most awful things in the first place."
