PIERS: Pete Davidson is repulsive but why aren’t there adults at NBC?

 It was the double ‘whatever’ that did it for me.

With two simple sneering words, comedian Pete Davidson reduced an American war hero’s battlefield wounds to a casual, grotesquely dismissive punchline on Saturday Night Live.

Davidson, best known for his recently terminated engagement with pop superstar Ariana Grande, smirked as he said it, like a naughty schoolboy.

‘This guy is kinda cool, Dan Crenshaw,’ he said, referring to the Republican candidate for Texas’ 2nd Congressional District in tomorrow’s midterm elections.

Crenshaw’s photo appeared on screen, showing him in an eye patch that he has worn since his right eye was blown to pieces while fighting for his country.

Pete Davidson reduced an American war hero’s battlefield wounds to a casual, grotesquely dismissive punchline on SNL. ‘This guy is kinda cool, Dan Crenshaw,’ he said, referring to the Republican candidate  from Texas as looking like a ‘hit man in a porno movie’

Michael Che, Davidson’s co-host on SNL’s regular ‘Weekend Update’ segment, sighed loudly ‘Oh come on man,’ – perhaps sensing, or more likely knowing, something very inappropriate was about to happen.

‘You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate from Texas, and not a hit man in a porno movie,’ Davidson continued.

Then, as the audience laughed and his co-host guffawed, he mocked: ‘I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in war or whatever…’

Pause.

‘Whatever.’

His double ‘whatever’ hung in the air like a defiant, repugnant two fingers to Crenshaw and his military service and gallantry.

Social media instantly erupted into howls of indignant fury.

Usually when it does that over a tasteless joke, I find myself racing to tell everyone to stop being an over-offended snowflake and calm down.

But on this occasion, I shared the outrage; Davidson’s comments crossed a basic line of human decency.

Davidson’s comments crossed a basic line of human decency and social media exploded 

Davidson’s comments crossed a basic line of human decency and social media exploded 

Dan Crenshaw was a former Navy SEAL who served in five tours of duty.

He was seriously wounded when he was hit by an IED blast during a mission in Helmand province, Afghanistan in 2012.

Crenshaw was evacuated and awoke from a medically induced coma to learn that his right eye had been destroyed, and his left eye was badly damaged.

At that time, he was completely blind and doctors warned him he would almost certainly never see again.

But after several difficult surgeries, his left eye was saved in what the head surgeon described as ‘a miracle’.

Astonishingly, Crenshaw refused to quit, and even went back to fight again for his country, being deployed twice more to the Middle East and South Korea.

When he was eventually medically retired in 2016, after ten years service in various SEAL teams, Crenshaw had earned numerous honours including two Bronze Stars (one with valor), the Purple Heart and the Navy Commendation Medal with Valour.

This, by any yardstick, makes him an American hero; a man who repeatedly laid his life on the line to fight for the freedoms the rest of us take for granted.

It also makes him a man who, regardless of your political persuasion, should command our universal and heartfelt respect.

Crenshaw was injured during his third deployment in 2012 when he was hit by an IED blast during a mission in Afghanistan, according to his website

He is pictured here with his wife Tara Crenshaw

Dan Crenshaw was a former Navy SEAL who served in five tours of duty. Crenshaw’s right eye was destroyed in the blast and his left eye was badly damaged from it. He’s a hero by any measure. He is pictured right with his wife Tara Crenshaw

I don’t have to agree with Crenshaw’s political opinions – and I don’t, not least about his opposition to new gun control laws – to understand he is a remarkable human being who has displayed extraordinary courage.

He certainly deserves better than to be mocked by a smug, gurning, comedian on national television for losing his eye in a battlefield explosion.

Crenshaw himself gave a classy response to Davidson’s ‘joke’, tweeting: ‘Good rule in life: I try hard not to offend, I try harder not to be offended. That being said, I hope @nbcsnl recognizes that vets don’t deserve to see their wounds used as punchlines for bad jokes.’

He went further in an interview with TMZ in which he said it would be ‘very healthy’ for the country as a whole to ‘get away from this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks.’

Crenshaw added that his biggest problem with the joke was its poor quality. ‘Here’s the real atrocity in all of this,’ he said, ‘it wasn’t even funny. It was not original, it wasn’t funny, it was just mean-spirited.’

Crenshaw was quick to respond to Davidson's skit on Sunday morning, calling out SNL for using veterans 'as punchlines for bad jokes' 

Crenshaw was quick to respond to Davidson’s skit on Sunday morning, calling out SNL for using veterans ‘as punchlines for bad jokes’ 

I agree with all that, including irritation at the current craze for forcing people to apologise or resign for dumb jokes.

Frankly I don’t care whether Pete Davidson says sorry or not.

He was reading from an autocue so this wasn’t some flippant, throwaway remark he spewed out in error. It was a quite deliberate attempt to deride a war hero for losing his eye.

Any apology he now makes will be a hollow, pointless one.

What makes this all the more unpalatable is that Davidson’s father was a hero too; a New York City firefighter who died on September 11 during the terror attacks on the World Trade Centre.

Davidson was just seven years old at the time and told the New York Times that he found the trauma he suffered ‘overwhelming’, even causing him to rip his own hair out until he was bald. He admitted that he struggled with suicidal thoughts.

Today, he has his father’s badge number, 8418, tattooed on his left arm.

All of this is very sad.

But it doesn’t, as some tried to suggest when the SNL furore erupted, give him a free pass to mock the heroism of a wounded war hero.

In fact, it just makes it even more shocking that Davidson would target someone who had also served his country so valiantly.

Davidson is known for his ‘vulgar confessional’ style of comedy.

But what he decides to laugh at about his own life – and he has even publicly made fun of his father’s death – is a matter for him.

What he did on Saturday night was inexcusable and disgusting.

As Meghan McCain, whose own father John was a war hero, said, it was ‘offensive to veterans, their families and all who serve.’

Meghan McCain, whose father spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, called Davidson's skit 'really awful and incredibly tone-deaf and offensive to veterans'

Meghan McCain, whose father spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, called Davidson’s skit ‘really awful and incredibly tone-deaf and offensive to veterans’

That, surely, is the point.

By saying what he did, Davidson was mocking everyone who has ever served in the US military and been wounded, or even killed.

He was implying none of it matters.

His sickeningly apathetic ‘whatever’ signified that he doesn’t give a damn what sacrifice wounded veterans have made for their country, their crippling injuries are just a good excuse for him to get a cheap laugh at their expense.

I hadn’t heard of Pete Davidson before he got engaged to Ariana Grande, and I sincerely hope I don’t have to hear about him again.

Dan Crenshaw’s claim to fame is risking his life so that idiots like Davidson continue to enjoy the freedom to mock him on live television.

He is a hero.

Pete Davidson’s claim to fame is having sex with a pop star, and now being a witless, insensitive, repulsive little slug unfit to lace Crenshaw’s SEAL boots.

He is a zero.

But there’s a wider, more important point to make here.

Pete Davidson’s claim to fame is having sex with a pop star, and now being a witless, insensitive, repulsive little slug unfit to lace Crenshaw’s SEAL boots. He is a zero

Pete Davidson’s claim to fame is having sex with a pop star, and now being a witless, insensitive, repulsive little slug unfit to lace Crenshaw’s SEAL boots. He is a zero

 What has American political discourse come to when it is considered acceptable for a brazen young comedian to go on an institution like NBC’s flagship comedy show and openly mock a war hero for losing an eye?

More pertinently, why did none of the supposed adults in the room at SNL or NBC stop this from happening?

Has partisan debate now become so horribly toxic in this Trump presidency era that literally anything goes?

It’s not entirely surprising Davidson might feel he could get away with saying what he said after Trump’s own sneering mockery of the late, great Senator John McCain for being captured in Vietnam.

What IS surprising is that he was allowed to say it – by experienced producers, editors and executives at one of America’s most eminent TV networks.

War heroes should be off limits to cruel jibes, but it would seem there are no limits any more to abuse in US political conversation.

Whatever happens in tomorrow’s elections, this has to change.

For the love of God, let the mindless mockery of a pathetic pipsqueak like Pete Davidson be the last time a war hero is humiliated for the public’s delectation.  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk