Skete

About

Skete refers to a nickname for Saturday Night Live cast member and comedian Pete Davidson given to him by rapper and entrepreneur Kanye 'Ye' West amid the drama between the two regarding Davidson dating Kanye's ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Kanye first uttered the nickname in February 2022 within a series of Instagram posts. The nickname was used by Kanye's fans to refer to Davidson as well as used ironically within memes to make fun of the drama. After Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian broke up in August 2022, Kanye shared an Instagram post claiming "Skete Davidson Dead at 28" in a photoshopped newspaper headline.

Origin

On February 13th, 2022, Kanye posted a series of Instagram posts that he's since deleted. One of them was a carousel post consisting of two images: one of a man holding another man in a chokehold and the other a screenshot of a text sent to Kanye from Kim Kardashian. In the caption of the post, Kanye wrote, "UPON MY WIFE'S REQUEST PLEASE NOBODY DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL TO SKETE I'M GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION MYSELF." This was the first utterance of the nickname.

Although it's been deleted, the Instagram^[1] account kanye.deleted reposted screenshots on February 15th, earning over 60 likes in one month (shown below, left and center). The Instagram^[2] account also reposted another Kanye post from the 14th that was another screenshot between him and Kim where he referred to Davidson as Skete (shown below, right).

Kanye also posted a Civil War meme that photoshopped Davidson into the image. It was reposted to Twitter^[7] on the 13th where it earned roughly 17,800 likes in one month (shown below).

Although Kanye's reasoning behind the nickname is unknown, a likely inspiration for the nickname comes from an SNL sketch Davidson performed with actor Timothée Chalamet on December 13th, 2020. The sketch is called, "Rap Roundtable," and features the two as rappers who frequently use the words "Skrrt" and "Yeet" in the video (shown below). The two words combined resemble Skete.

Spread

On February 14th, 2022, the Facebook^[5] page Eric Andre M E M E S that Ranch over and Cry posted a meme using a screenshot of Kanye's Skete post, earning over 150 reactions in one month (shown below, left). On February 15th, Twitter^[6] user SweetToothAudio tweeted about Skete, suggesting that Davidson should change his Twitter name to Skete in order to send Kanye "deeper into his meltdown," earning roughly 262,200 likes in less than one month (shown below, right).

On February 17th, Kanye uploaded more Instagram posts that have since been deleted, this time resurfacing a 2018 Weekend Update^[3] bit from Davidson regarding Kanye's promotion of Donald Trump and Make America Great Again. The primary post in the series of posts featured Davidson wearing a hat that read, "Make Kanye 2006 Again," and Kanye captioned the screenshot, "HI SKETE YOU GOT ANYMORE MENTAL HEALTH JOKES FOR ME?" (shown below). It can still be accessed via the Instagram^[4] account kanye.deleted.

On March 13th, screenshots of Kanye and Pete Davidson's text conversations were leaked, showing that Davidson referred to himself as Skete in the messages as well as sending Ye a selfie of him in bed with Kim Kardashian (shown below).

Overall, memes and tweets referencing Skete primarily came from Kanye's fans, referring to him as such when they took his side of the drama.

Kanye's "Skete Davidson Dead" Instagram Post

On August 5th, 2022, Davidson and Kardashian broke up after nine months of dating, first being reported on by E! News.^[8] Many creators imagined what Kanye's response to the breakup would be, however, Kanye didn't officially say anything until August 8th, 2022, when he posted on Instagram^[9] a photoshopped newspaper headline that read, "Skete Davidson Dead at 28." The post received roughly 1.7 million likes in three hours (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References