There are certainly specific things about being famous that aren’t easy, especially when it comes to online trolls and social media criticism. Unfortunately, though, that’s part of being a public figure, and while celebrities often know, to a degree, what they’re getting into, we don’t often think about the friends and family who also read all of the good, bad and ugly that’s posted about their loved ones. Pete Davidson’s mom, Amy, apparently had her own way of standing up for her son — creating a fake Twitter account — and the comedian recently shared the funny reason she got caught.
Pete Davidson stepped away from Saturday Night Live in 2022, after eight years on the NBC sketch comedy, and when talking on the Family Trips With the Meyers Brothers podcast, he discussed how Amy Davidson handled the critiques aimed at her son’s comedy skills. The Bupkis star explained the “traditional SNL trajectory” is that fans love you when you first join, but then stop until you get good at the show. He told Seth and Josh Meyers:
My mom used to have a fake Twitter account when I first got SNL. … So, it was, like, my second or third year, and it was a lot of, ‘He’s not useful,’ typical Twitter comments, and my mom made a fucking fake Twitter account under the name @JoeSmith1355 and would respond to everyone. But it was so specific. It would be like, ‘Actually, I heard he’s working on himself and does that quite often.'
This is SUCH a mom move, and I love that she came in with the most generic name ever, “Joe Smith,” but then defended Pete Davidson in a way that could only come from a mother. That wasn’t her biggest mistake, though, when it came to keeping her identity a secret. The actor continued:
This was the kicker. Everyone found out it was my mom, not through detective work. They found out because her username was @JoeSmith, but her profile name was Amy Davidson and the profile picture was Amy Davidson. So, it was a picture of my mom, with a name that said @JoeSmith1355, commenting on all these haters. … She got my back, dude.
I don’t think there exists a story more pure than this one. Amy Davidson knew enough to give her handle a pseudonym but then used her real name and photo on her profile. So it must have been immediately obvious to anyone she was responding to that she was Pete Davidson’s mom — and that actually might have been a better strategy in the first place. I’d feel guilty AF if someone’s mom came at me for some offhand comment I’d made.
Knowing how personally Amy Davidson took criticism of her son just makes me think how hard it must have been during the whole “civil war with Kanye West” ordeal when he was dating Kim Kardashian. The family dealt with security issues at the time, with people even showing up at Amy’s house.
Pete Davidson recently checked himself into rehab, reportedly for post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder, which coincided with the good news that his semi-autobiographical dramedy Bupkis was renewed for a second season. That means we’ll get to see more of Edie Falco as Amy Davidson, but with the WGA writer’s strike, it’s impossible to know when scripted shows will be able to go back into production.
In the meantime, you can enjoy the first season of Bupkis with a Peacock subscription, and be sure to check out our 2023 TV schedule to stay on top of everything that’s premiering soon.
