CULTURE

All the Pete Davidson References in Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” Video

“Sry I dipped.”

November 30, 2018

Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for MTV

Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” is an ode to gracefully remembering past relationships for what they taught you, and not the grudges you hold. However, released in the wake of her broken engagement (and, quite famously, just 30 minutes before the first episode of Saturday Night Live thereafter), it is also a song very much about Pete Davidson. While Grande chose to draw on inspirations from four of her favorite rom-coms and teen movies like Mean Girls and Legally Blonde for the visuals, the specter of Davidson (and his big…teeth) is very much present in the video, especially when you come down from the high of seeing Kris Jenner as cool mom Mrs. George and go back to watch it with a closer eye. Indeed, given all the cameos in the thing, we wouldn’t have been surprised to see Davidson himself pop up; but nevertheless, BDE reverberates throughout the video in more ways than one. Here, all the Pete Davidson references we could find.

Troye Sivan‘s ”Fucking Sick” Line

Sivan pops up in the video’s preamble to declare, “I heard she’s a lesbian now and dating some chick named Aubrey. It’s fucking sick.” That’s mostly a joke about iTunes’ infamous botching of the self-referential lyric “Her name is Ari” to “Her name is Aubrey,” but there might be a slight reference to Davidson there as well.

Davidson’s first public confirmation of their engagement came when he was a guest on The Tonight Show; when the host, Jimmy Fallon, asked if the rumors were, true he replied, “It’s sick. It’s fucking lit.” Sivan later gets pushed into a locker door by Grande.

The Burn Book Page

It’s been pointed out that Ricky is perhaps the most forgettable of Grande’s exes named in “Thank U, Next” (it’s her former backup dancer Ricky Alvarez, whom she dated from around 2015 to 2016), so he gets a little bit of justice from the fact that his Burn Book page is featured most prominently in the video.

But we do get a split-second peek at Pete’s page. It’s festooned with the phrases “sry I dipped,” “I [heart] u always,” and, of course, “huuuuuge.”

Girl Talk With Jennifer Coolidge

Despite the fact that Grande herself can do an amazing impersonation of Jennifer Coolidge, she opted to cast the actual actress as her Legally Blonde character, Paulette. The pair reminisce about dating guys with big front teeth. Incidentally, Coolidge used to date Chris Kattan, who, you know what, was the Pete Davidson of his own time at Saturday Night Live.

BDE Delivery

No, that package isn’t from UPS. It’s from BDE.

So there you have it, several references to Pete in the video, and the maturity to confirm that, indeed, he is packing. Gwen Stefani didn’t even do that much for Tony Kanal in the “Cool” video (one of the other few “we broke up, but it’s fine” bops available), so, frankly, Davidson should be pleased.