Four and a half years after acquiring a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry on a costly whim, Pete Davidson and Colin Jost turned their boat into a doddering, dockside comedy venue on Manhattan’s East River — at least for a night.

More than 300 people who had registered online for complimentary tickets made their way to Pier 17, near the South Street Seaport, on Thursday, and filed onto the 277-foot, 2,100-ton “Snapple Island Ferry” — rechristened for the evening by the fruit juice brand that was sponsoring the proceedings. Davidson and Jost performed a loose, seven-minute opening set, before a lineup of well-known and rising New York City comedians, including Ronny Chieng and Jay Jurden, took the stage.

“I feel like we should acknowledge our former sponsor, too — my accountant’s suicide note,” Jost joked, in a mordant reference to the impulsive purchase that had brought him and Davidson there.

Jost and Davidson worked together on “Saturday Night Live,” and the old friends were part of a group of investors that bought the boat for around $280,000 in an auction in early 2022. (Jost is still a cast member on the show; Davidson left the same year he bought the ferry.)

Both men are from Staten Island and have long histories with the ferry line, which, in its current form as a city-run fleet, has brought commuters and Statue of Liberty admirers to and from Manhattan since 1905. Jost writes affectionately in his memoir, “A Very Punchable Face,” about taking the ferry to school as a child, and it is featured prominently in Davidson’s loosely autobiographical film, “The King of Staten Island.”

A proposal around the time of the purchase laid out a plan for the boat, officially named the John F. Kennedy: It would be transformed into a floating, luxury entertainment complex with hotel rooms, a performance venue, and several restaurants and bars. But for years the ferry has languished unused, accumulating docking fees while the group has been deluged by regulatory, legal and financial hurdles.

On Thursday night, the Kennedy, commissioned in 1965, seemed largely unchanged from its commuter days. It retained its signature orange and blue exterior paint, glossy brown benches and industrial musk. Behind a concessions stand, bartenders in naval-inspired outfits served “Snapple Apple Manhattan” cocktails with bourbon and apple slices. A large white banner hung over the side of the boat, replacing the word “Staten” with “Snapple.”

Poor air-conditioning and a lack of ventilation — the ferry was sold without a working engine and remained stationary throughout the evening — made the upper-deck performance area stiflingly hot, something several of the comedians acknowledged during their performances.

“If you want to take something off, go for it,” Matt Richards, the night’s M.C., told the crowd. “Nobody’s filming on their phones here — it’s a safe space.”

On top of the heat, the current of the East River intermittently wobbled the room.

“Hot and Nauseous — that would be a good name for the next one of these,” Jost joked. “I hope everybody took Dramamine.”

Other performers during the roughly two hours of sets included Caitlin Peluffo, Paul Virzi, Mike Vecchione, KC Shornima and Sal Vulcano. Chieng, a regular host of “The Daily Show,” closed out the evening with a routine of deadpan and topical humor, including jokes that touched on Woody Allen and the Epstein files.

Much of his and the other comedians’ material is unprintable in this newspaper.

A 35-year-old Lower East Side resident named Mia, who had come to the event because she was a fan of “Saturday Night Live” (and who declined to give her last name), said she “didn’t really see much of a difference” between the Snapple Island Ferry and its workaday brethren. But she enjoyed herself regardless.

“With such big names attached to it, I feel like you expect more,” she said. “But it was a fun time.”