Pete Davidson's joke about former Navy SEAL and Texas congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw fell flat last week on "Saturday Night Live." Crenshaw lost an eye in an IED blast in Afghanistan, so Davidson thought it'd be funny to compare him to "a hitman in a porno movie." At least he acknowledged the actual cause of the injury.
"I know he lost his eye in war or whatever."
Even Davidson's "SNL" co-stars chided him for the insensitive punchline. "It definitely missed the mark," Kenan Thompson noted on the "TODAY" show. Thompson's dad is a Vietnam veteran.
No worries, though, because Crenshaw prevailed in Texas's 2nd congressional district Tuesday night and is now telling a few funnies of his own.
Live chat with Dan Crenshaw after his victory speech: pic.twitter.com/03wnzLXnWc
— Ivory Hecker FOX 26 (@IvoryHecker) November 7, 2018
"SEALs don't get offended," Crenshaw said after his win. "That's just not what we do. That doesn't mean it wasn't offensive, but let's stop demanding apologies and firings of people. Let's just...demand that comedy actually be funny, but let's be good people."
Some analysts say that the "SNL" joke was so offensive that it may have actually helped Crenshaw's campaign. He even amusingly noted in his victory speech that it earned him a ton of Twitter followers.
Crenshaw, grateful for the win and eager to get to work, said he hopes more veterans run for Congress.
"They started out serving their country, so there's an element of trust there, an element that you can actually work together with and maybe find the things that we agree on and go forward with those," Crenshaw said. "I think the more veterans in Congress, the more likely it is we can do that and find issues we can work together on."