3 Things Tiffany Haddish Learned From Her ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things’ Co-Stars

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS
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ABC/Mary Ellen Matthews

The reboot of Art Linkletter’s classic variety show Kids Say the Darndest Things, which mines kids’ hilariously innocent perspectives on dating, technology and other topics for comedy gold, has an unlikely host in Tiffany Haddish. In her stand-up, the comedian says some pretty wild stuff.

But despite her very adult humor, Haddish is emphatic when she says she’s great with little ones. “One of my favorite things in the world is to just sit and talk to kids. And really, I ask maybe two questions, and then they just go,” she says. “You learn so much from them.” Here are three things they’ve taught her.

1. She needs to get married again?

Kids are always trying to get Haddish hitched. One tiny matchmaker recently gave the Girls Trip star an earful, telling the 39-year-old she is running out of time and needs to find a man to walk down the aisle with ASAP. “Another girl wanted to fix me up with her brother,” Haddish reports. “He was 15. I said, ‘That’s a little too young!'”

2. Never talk down to them.

The trick to chatting with pint-size guests, Haddish says, is to speak to them like you would anyone else: “Treat them like adults. They respond to that.”

3. Children are naturally kind.

For one of the show’s hidden-camera skits, Haddish asked a young girl to field a phone call from a pretend ex-boyfriend she couldn’t bring herself to speak with. “So she’s talking to him for me, and we’re going back and forth, and then I started crying,” Haddish says. “She’s like, ‘It’s going to be OK. Don’t worry.’ We just met, and she was taking care of me.”

Kids Say the Darndest Things, Series Premiere, Sunday, October 6, 8/7c, ABC