During the eleven year run of her hilarious television show “The Carol Burnett Show,” Carol Burnett would end each show by tugging on her ear. Now, the truth behind why she did that has been revealed.

Burnett actually started tugging on her ear long before she ever had her own show. She first did it during her television debut on “The Paul Winchell Show” back in 1955 as a way of communicating with her grandmother Mabel.

“My grandmother (Nanny) raised me out here in Hollywood. When I got my first job back in New York, I called her and I said ‘Nanny, I’m going to be on television Saturday morning.’ She said, ‘Well, you gotta say hello to me.’ We figured this out — to pull my ear — and that was my signal to her,” she recently revealed. “It always meant ‘Hi Nanny. I’m fine. I love you.’ Later it meant, ‘Hi Nanny. I’m fine. I love you. Your check’s on the way.'”

Burnett had heard of a dance troupe that would “say hello” to their children by tugging on their ears, so she decided it was a great way to send a message to her grandmother. Even though her grandma passed away during the run of “The Carol Burnett Show,” Burnett continued the gesture, and it soon became her signature move.

That one time when Jennifer Aniston asked to pull Carol Burnett’s ear and she called her kinky #goldenglobes pic.twitter.com/wBJNm7y9WZ

— Eℓιzabeth (@alittlebitwickd) January 8, 2018

Burnett truly is a living legend, and there will never be anyone else like her! Watch her tell the story behind her ear tug herself in the video below!