Pete Davidson Honors Dad Scott on 9/11: Why This Year's Anniversary Hits Harder Than Ever

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For Pete Davidson, tribute has never taken the form of solemn silence. It took the form of ink, film scripts, and brutal stand-up routines. The number 8418, Scott’s FDNY badge number, is permanently tattooed on his left arm. It became a recognizable cultural talisman during his eight-season tenure on Saturday Night Live, visible beneath rolled-up sleeves during Weekend Update appearances.

The 2020 film The King of Staten Island served as a public exorcism of that prolonged grief. In the film, Pete played Scott Carlin, a fictionalized version of himself who stalled out in early adulthood, unable to process the death of his firefighter father seventeen years earlier. Directed by Judd Apatow and shot on Staten Island, the production relied on real FDNY firefighters as extras and advisers. It stripped away romantic notions of hero worship, focusing instead on the collateral damage endured by the survivors: the panic attacks, the aimlessness, and the heavy burden of measuring up to a ghost.

The comedy world often misunderstood this dynamic. Critics occasionally chided Davidson for bringing up his father in roasts or stand-up specials. Yet peers like Colin Jost and Dave Chappelle have pointed out that comedy was Davidson's singular survival mechanism. When an unimaginable national catastrophe dismantles your household at age seven, turning that horror into punchlines is often the only way to keep it from destroying you completely.