Pete Davidson’s 5-Word Webby Speech Goes Dark

Pete Davidson showed up to the 30th Annual Webby Awards on Monday night, collected a Special Achievement Award — and delivered what might be the most Pete Davidson acceptance speech in history. Five words: “Thanks, I’m still dead inside.”

The ceremony, held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, is famous for its strict five-word speech rule, and most winners played it warm and aspirational. Shonda Rhimes, who took home Streaming Person of the Year, went with “I am just getting started.” Don Lemon, who won both the Webby Award and People’s Voice Award for Best Video Podcast Host, kept it civic: “A free press is essential.” Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka, winning in the best comedy category, managed to pack an entire immigration story into five words: “Formerly undocumented immigrant. Current winner.”

And then there was Davidson.

The line got attention on its own terms — dark, deadpan, very on-brand — but the timing is what made people pay closer attention. Reports have been circulating that Davidson and Elsie Hewitt, the mother of his five-month-old daughter Scottie Rose, are navigating some serious friction behind closed doors. The couple welcomed Scottie in December, and Davidson had been publicly glowing about new fatherhood, telling People that fatherhood was “f-cking awesome” and calling Hewitt “a fantastic mom.”

What’s Really Going On With Pete and Elsie

But sources close to the couple have been telling a more complicated story. “There are issues, but they’re trying to figure things out together,” one insider told People. A separate source told the Daily Mail that none of Davidson’s friends are particularly surprised. “Not one of Pete’s friends is surprised that there are relationship issues with him and Elsie,” the source claimed. “This is what he ends up doing always. She was also warned well ahead of time in their relationship to be careful with him, because Pete loves to self-sabotage a good thing.”

According to insiders, the pregnancy was unplanned — and that reportedly changed the energy between them almost immediately. “Their dynamic immediately changed when she became pregnant, and they are trying to figure out the next steps as they want to be together for their kid, but it just might not be their endgame,” the source alleged. The same insider claimed Davidson isn’t ready to walk away: “He doesn’t want the relationship to end because he wants his daughter to have the luxury of having a complete family, something he wasn’t afforded himself.” Davidson lost his father, firefighter Scott Davidson, in the September 11 attacks when Pete was just seven years old.

Hewitt, for her part, shared a quiet but emotional Mother’s Day post the day before the ceremony. “We’re all here because of a mother’s sacrifice to make herself your first home. i got to be Scottie’s,” she wrote. “Greatest honor of my life. happy mother’s day.”

MGK’s Introduction and the Kevin Hart Roast Fallout

Davidson wasn’t alone on that Webby stage — longtime friend Machine Gun Kelly was there to introduce him, and MGK had nothing but praise. “He was sharing a lot of his jokes that he was going to do for the Kevin Hart roast last week, and what stuck out to me was that he would tell me some of the jokes, and he never asked me, ‘Oh, is this too much?’ or ‘Is it gonna offend anybody?’” MGK said. “He just told me the jokes, and it made me realize that, you know, he’s fearless, like great comedy is supposed to be raw, authentic, and he puts his own self on the line to make us all laugh and think.”

That Kevin Hart roast has been generating its own noise. At the Netflix event, Davidson went after MAGA-aligned comedian Tony Hinchcliffe — the podcaster who made racist jokes about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally in 2024 — with a vengeance. “Tony Hinchcliffe’s here looking like both a child molester and the doll they give the child to show where he touched them,” Davidson said, before adding, “Tony reminds me of Charlie Kirk” in a line that drew both gasps and applause. He also landed a shot at Kanye West: “I was in a beef with Kanye, so I’ve taken shots from better gay Nazis.” Chelsea Handler and Sheryl Underwood also took swings at Hinchcliffe during the event.

Backstage at the Webbys, Davidson did show a slightly lighter side. When asked what advice he’d give his younger self, he kept it simple: “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

It’s a sentiment that lands a little differently knowing everything he’s carrying right now.