Nick Cannon recalls casting Pete Davidson in his first movie as a character named Stink Finger

Before Pete Davidson was the King of Staten Island, he was... Stink Finger.

Nick Cannon recalled helping the budding comedian land his first movie role in 2014's School Dance while on The Howard Stern Show. At the time, Davidson was just a teenager who called into Cannon's radio show every morning asking to be on.

Bobby Bank/WireImage Pete Davidson and Nick Cannon

"I taught him everything he knows," Cannon said when asked about his friendship with the Saturday Night Live alum. "When I was at 92.3, I used to host a comedy night at Gotham in the city, and there was this kid that would call my morning show every single week [and say], 'Yo, I'm funnier than you. Put me on the show.' It became a bit."

When Cannon invited Davidson to one of his shows, "He came down at 15 years old and ripped it," he recounted. "From then, I took him on the road with me. We worked on all my standup specials together... [and I] put him in his first movie. I directed this movie called School Dance; he played this character that didn't have one line, but his name was Stink Finger."

The character walked around with a stinky finger and put it up to peoples' noses, Cannon recalled. "Stink Finger turned into Pete Davidson," he said. You can see Davidson (and his foul finger) in the below clip (starting around 1:30).

The comedy, which was also written and produced by Cannon, followed a high school freshman who wants to be part of the most popular dance clique in school. It also starred Katt Williams, Tiffany Haddish, Wilmer Valderrama, and George Lopez.

Davidson would go on to join SNL and star in films like The King of Staten Island, The Suicide Squad, and Bodies Bodies Bodies, among other titles. Coincidentally, Davidson was formerly in a highly-publicized relationship with Cannon's ex, Kim Kardashian.

"That was probably our most distant time," Cannon said of the period during Davidson and Kardashian's coupling. "I was doing my daily talk show, trying to be funny, you know, and he's dealing with all of that." He also noted he was previously close to Kanye West, Kardashian's ex-husband. "That was a weird dichotomy," Cannon said of the love quadrilateral.

Davidson, who will soon premiere his upcoming Peacock series Bupkis, recently reflected on balancing his work as a comedian and actor with the struggles of becoming tabloid fodder. "I've been in show business for, like, half my life almost — for 14 or 15 years — and on a national TV show. In 12 years, I've dated 10 people. I don't think that's that crazy, but to some people, that's very interesting. That became all anyone would talk about," he said on Jon Bernthal's Real Ones podcast. "Suddenly you're in this zeitgeist and that has nothing to do with the work. And that's a really s---ty feeling."

Watch Cannon's interview with Stern above.

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