Pete Davidson stopped by the Weekend Update desk on “Saturday Night Live,” where he called R. Kelly a “monster” who “should go to jail forever”… and then compared the disgraced R&B singer to the Catholic Church.
Davidson was prepped to talk about listening to R. Kelly and Michael Jackson’s music despite numerous sexual assault accusations surrounding each of them, prefacing the bit about Kelly with, “Before I continue, this guy is a monster and he should go to jail forever.”
He continued: “But if you support the Catholic Church, isn’t that like the same thing as being an R. Kelly fan?”
The spattering of laughter was over overpowered by groans and boos, and Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost looked a tad uncomfortable as he glanced into the crowd.
Davidson went on. “I don’t really see the difference… only one’s music is significantly better. Just the other day my mom was like, ‘I’m going to Mass.’ And I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go listen to the “Ignition” remix.’
“Look, I’m not saying it’s an easy decision,” Davidson continued. “I’m just saying you don’t know how good someone’s music really is until you find out they’re a pedophile. You know? The reason everybody is so upset is R. Kelly and Michael Jackson made great music, you know. But if I found out Macklemore did some weird stuff, I’d be happy to free up some space on my iPhone.”
Davidson said if you want to listen to music by artists like R. Kelly, “you just have to admit that they’re bad people.” He added, “All I’m saying is pretending these people never existed is maybe not the solution.”
You can watch the whole segment in the clip above.