Comedians Nick Cannon and Kevin Hart are real-life friends, not just when the cameras are rolling.
The two multi-hyphenates go so far back that their bond reflects more of a brotherhood as they continue to support each other’s separate endeavors.
So much so that Cannon jokingly claimed, “I take all the credit for Kevin Hart. I will just put my flag in the ground … You’re nothing without me, Hart!” in a new interview with “Entertainment Tonight.” He added, “I am the pulse in the HartBeat,” Hart’s production company.”
Cannon, 42, and Hart, 43, have been making audiences laugh together for the better part of the last decade.
Both actors first struck comedy gold when the younger talent was cast as one of Hart’s six friends on “Real Husbands of Hollywood” in 2013.
But their friendship goes back at least another decade. “It’s funny, man, because we were two young comics struggling to get it going, you know, 20-plus years ago,” added the former Nickelodeon child star.
“Now to still be best friends in the game, or as I say, best frenemies. We’ve done so much together, but we’ve also, you know, in our own merits, have done some remarkable things in entertainment,” he said.
The “Wild’n Out” creator was gearing up for the June 2 premiere of the show’s 20th season when he spoke with the outlet. Hart is among the guests who will make an appearance on the long-running program.
Cannon continued, “To be able to have a friend like that in entertainment is second to none. So, I love everything that he’s doing, and I love the fact that he finds a smidgen of humble pie to come back to hang out with us here at ‘Wild ’N Out’ for season 20.”
Cannon expressed a similar sentiment when Hart made a guest appearance on his now-defunct eponymous talk show.
“People don’t understand this is what we do; this is our friendship. This is our real reality,” said the Ncredible Studios founder in 2021. “Not only do we find happiness in it but I think there’s just pure joy in having a real relationship.”
The comedic box office star chimed in, saying, “It goes so far back to the beginning. The days before the success grew for both of us. We were hungry and ambitious entertainers. It’s a real relationship.”
The cast of misfit “husbands” reunited last year for a season of the revamped show “Real Husbands of Hollywood: More Kevin, More Problems.” Similar to the original series, Hart and Cannon played friends and sometimes foes, always looking for an opportunity to one-up each other.
That theme is present in real life, as the two men have left fans in tears over the epic pranks they pull on each other — from Hart blasting his friend’s real phone number on billboards in major cities to Cannon gifting the “I’m a Grown Little Man” comic a llama for his birthday in 2021 despite his fear of animals. In addition, last year, Hart surprised the father of 12 with a condom vending machine.
Those pranks even landed the duo on a new show called “Celebrity Prank Wars.” In its debut, fans watched as Hart was petrified to the point of climbing onto a countertop as a host of animals paraded through his studio.
Fans joked that he looked like an elf on the shelf as he sought refuge with a knife in hand from a porcupine, crocodile, and an ostrich.
