What Pete Davidson Said About Aretha Franklin’s Funeral

Aretha Franklin’s funeral was in 2018. Years later, Pete Davidson returned to it in his 2024 Netflix special Turbo Fonzarelli, saying he had attended while high on ketamine. He described embarrassment at having been in that condition at a funeral.

He was telling the story on a stand-up stage. That makes it his account of the event, not an independently verified medical record. It also leaves the other people there out of reach: the routine cannot tell us what they knew about him or what they were thinking at the service.

The story he chose to tell

Davidson brought up ketamine early in the routine, then moved to Franklin’s funeral. His account treated his own behavior as inappropriate for that setting. Recollection sat alongside exaggeration and imagined dialogue, the material of a stand-up performance.

When he imagined how Franklin might respond, he was writing a joke. It did not record her reaction or establish that he had spoken with her family. Those are different kinds of claims from what a comedian puts into a routine.

A viewer can still find the joke uncomfortable or in poor taste. Describing its source accurately does not require approving it; it means reporting a comedy performance as a comedy performance.

Ariana Grande was there to perform

Davidson attended the service with Ariana Grande, to whom he was engaged at the time. Grande performed a song associated with Franklin as part of a larger tribute. Her presence and performance are separate from Davidson's later account of his own drug use.

There is no basis here for suggesting Grande shared his condition, approved of it or knew everything he later described. Photographs showing two people together do not establish those things.

The original occasion was a funeral honoring a musician, not an event organized around the couple. Coverage of the joke should not make the other people there responsible for the story Davidson eventually told.

Remembering the person being honored

Franklin died in August 2018 at 76. The Recording Academy's remembrance described the reach of her work across soul and popular music, including recordings that remained part of the culture long after their release.

That career is the reason such a large public tribute took place. Davidson's recollection was a later entertainment story attached to it, not the defining account of the service or Franklin's life.

A dated comedy account

Turbo Fonzarelli is a 2024 special in Netflix’s listing. That date belongs in the story; calling it Davidson’s latest or new routine now would give an old account a misleading sense of immediacy.

Report what he said as his account. The performance cannot provide a diagnosis, show how everyone else experienced the funeral or turn an exchange imagined for a joke into something that actually happened.