You need to watch Pete Davidson tackling his depression on SNL (Video)

SNL’s Pete Davidson took control of the narrative about his struggle with depression in a hilarious Weekend Update segment.

Comedy, in particular, Saturday Night Live, is best when it’s honest. That’s why the show hit a new high last season when it was relentless in dissecting the fear and angst over Donald Trump winning the presidency. We saw honesty in the cold open of Saturday’s episode when musician Jason Aldean paid tribute to the victims of the Vegas shooting, something devoid of comedy but pure with emotion.

Pete Davidson provided us with another moment like that later on in the night. The comedian, who took a break from the show last year to go to rehab, openly discussed and joked about his depression and mental illness.

Davidson used his battle with depression to craft a hilarious Weekend Update bit that both raised awareness and was clearly therapeutic.

Spliced between punchlines about how his sketches suck because they’re written by a depressed guy, was a raw honesty that is often shied away from when talking about mental illness. Just a few months ago, Davidson revealed that he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and has since become a voice for tens of millions of Americans struggling with their own form of mental illness.

Depression is mental illness, but there’s such a negative stereotype associated with the term mental illness that it has become one of the great problems of our time. It’s assumed that if you deem yourself mentally ill, you’re somehow unfit or deranged.

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While Davidson is hardly trying to be the voice of a movement, his tackling mental illness from such a personal and honest place can at the very least soften the edges of a conversation we’re all afraid to have but need to sit down and discuss.