Haley Kalil fires back at Pete Davidson over his female influencer comments
Davidson said on a Variety segment that get-ready-with-me creators do 'nothing'; Kalil answered in a TikTok that her degrees and hustle are the receipts.
The tea in 3
- Pete Davidson told Variety's "Ask a Local" that get-ready-with-me creators do "nothing" and, by his claim, "make 40 million a year."
- Haley Kalil answered in a stitched TikTok covered from Oct 6, listing her degrees and calling creators "obviously a threat" to him.
- Davidson had not been quoted responding in the coverage of the exchange.
Haley Kalil, a TikTok creator who also posts as Haley Baylee, has answered Pete Davidson after his comments about female influencers in a Variety interview. Her reply, a TikTok stitch that coverage picked up on Tuesday, Oct 6, is a point-by-point rebuttal with her résumé attached.
What Davidson said
In a Variety “Ask a Local” segment published around Oct 1, Davidson riffed on the influencer economy, per Complex. The line that lit the fuse:
girls are just talking to themselves on there, and they’re like, ‘Okay, come get ready with me,’ and I’m like, ‘Who the f*** are you? What do you do?’ Nothing. What the f*** is this? They make 40 million a year.— Pete Davidson, Variety “Ask a Local”
He added that “the world’s broken.” Complex reports he then turned to TikTok dance videos, asking whether anyone else sees “how insane and lame this is.”
Kalil’s reply
Kalil stitched the Variety clip. Her pitch, as quoted by Fangirlish: creating is “practically the exact same thing” Davidson does, except she writes, edits, lights and scripts her own work.
- She said she studied at college before comedy, graduating with a 4.0 and degrees in biomedical sciences and psychology, plus a chemistry minor.
- She said she won Miss Minnesota USA and Miss Minnesota Teen USA to help pay for school.
- She noted that the newest SNL cast additions were women who came from TikTok.
Then she turned it around. Kalil said Davidson did not call out streamers or male athletes, only women, adding that creators are “obviously a threat to you.” Her kicker: “For a man who’s dated so many successful women, it’s crazy how much you hate them.”
vs
Why people noticed
Tubefilter’s weekly roundup on Oct 9 covered the exchange, saying Kalil questioned whether there’s any difference between a social-media influencer and a stand-up comedian, since both create original material and fund their own work.
Where it stands
Davidson has not been quoted responding to Kalil in the coverage of the exchange. Everything above is each side’s own framing: his interview comments and her TikTok.
The “influencers don’t work” argument never dies, and creators keep answering it with receipts. Kalil’s version was just unusually specific.
Your reaction?
Receipts
Where this story comes from. We link primary posts and the outlets that reported them.
- Complex — Pete Davidson Expresses Disbelief Over Influencer Salaries, Jokes He Should Start OnlyFans 2026-10-01
- Fangirlish — Haley Kalil's Response To Pete Davidson Is Golden 2026-10-08
- Tubefilter — Have you heard? Pokimane at Chipotle, a Rooster Teeth reunion, and a Mike Tomlin Minecraft update. 2026-10-09
Haley Kalil Something wrong or missing? Send a correction · How we report
