The Charlie Kirk Show producer Blake Neff attempted to take the high road, publicly stating he didn't like Davidson's joke while acknowledging the audience rejected it too—framing this as a moment of measured restraint from Kirk's inner circle rather than outrage.
Insiders close to the Kirk family say Erika Kirk has been drowning in vitriol since her husband's death, and this latest roast joke is just another gut punch. Sources claim she's received 'disturbing' messages daily and feels abandoned by allies who haven't spoken up strongly enough.
Pete Davidson, 32, made the joke at Kevin Hart's Netflix roast on Sunday, May 10, 2026—the same event where he also said: 'Kill Tony. Please someone f***ing kill Tony.' Charlie Kirk was fatally shot September 2025 at Utah Valley University while speaking; he was 31.
Davidson clearly calculated that punching down on a murder victim would play with the roast crowd—and for once, they didn't bite. But the damage is done, and Erika Kirk continues to absorb hits from every direction while the comedy world moves on to its next target.
Pete Davidson just couldn't resist kicking a man when he's down—even if that man has been in the grave for seven months. The former Saturday Night Live star dropped what can only be described as a vicious punch at deceased conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during Kevin Hart's Netflix roast on Sunday, May 10—and now the late podcaster's own producer is speaking out. Blake Neff, one of the producers behind "The Charlie Kirk Show," addressed the controversy head-on in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, May 11.
"On today’s show, we discussed Pete Davidson's joke about Charlie's death while roasting Tony Hinchcliffe," Neff wrote alongside a clip from the podcast. His verdict? "I didn't like it, and I'm glad the audience wasn't into it." That's right—Neff made sure to point out that even the live crowd at Hart's Netflix special apparently winced at Davidson's crass reference to Kirk's assassination.
For those who missed it, during his set Davidson compared fellow comedian Tony Hinchcliffe to Charlie Kirk with a vulgar joke about Kirk supposedly being "on camera letting a guy unload in his throat." He also bizarrely urged someone to "kill Tony" multiple times throughout the night. The timing of Davidson's joke makes it even more stomach-turning. Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on September 5, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University during what should have been a routine conservative event.
The rising star of right-wing media was just 31 years old—leaving behind his wife Erika Kirk and their two young children. Since his death, Erika, now 37, has assumed the role of chairwoman and CEO at Turning Point USA, the youth conservative organization her husband founded. But sources say taking over the empire hasn't come without brutal personal costs.
Erika herself addressed the relentless harassment she's faced in a recent video posted to X on April 29—less than two weeks before Davidson's roast joke went viral. "Every morning I wake up to a new headline written about me," she said, visibly emotional. "I have comedians dressing up in whiteface, I have people saying I'm not fit to be CEO and I have Candace Owens claiming I murdered my husband." She warned of a "serious epidemic of dehumanization plaguing this country" as violent tragedies become routine fodder for entertainment.
"We all need to do our part, and by the grace of God, we will succeed," she concluded, invoking the imagery of America as "a shining city on a hill." Here's where things get complicated for Davidson's defenders: Neff actually acknowledged that he's heard "much worse jokes" about his longtime friend and colleague. In his podcast discussion, the producer admitted that crude humor comes with Kirk having become what he called "iconic in American culture." That's a remarkably diplomatic way of saying dead men don't get to defend themselves, so comedians will inevitably take shots.
But it's also a tacit acknowledgment that the Davidson joke landed poorly—even among people who knew Kirk best. The former SNL star clearly expected easy laughs by weaponizing a real assassination for shock value. Instead, he got silence and discomfort where applause should have been. Sometimes the room tells you everything you need to know about whether you've crossed a line—and on May 10, even a roast crowd wasn't buying what Davidson was selling.
