Burnett has previously said that the ‘I Love Lucy’ star is “the woman who influenced me probably the most”

Lucille Ball had a short and sweet nickname for longtime friend Carol Burnett.

While speaking with Laura Dern for a recent chat published by Interview, the 92-year-old actress recalled the simple moniker that Ball, who she has previously cited as a major influence, assigned her early on in their friendship.

Burnett described the late I Love Lucy star, who died in 1989 at age 77, as “adorable and very smart” and one of her “very good friends.”

The Carol Burnett Show host recalled how Ball, who was over two decades her senior, helped her out when she was a burgeoning star.

“She came to see me when I was doing an old Broadway show called Once Upon a Mattress,” Burnett said, “and she came backstage to my dressing room and was so supportive. She called me ‘Kid.’ ”

Dern, 58, then interjected to share her appreciation for Ball’s chosen nickname for Burnett, stating, “That’s my favorite, that that was her nickname for you.”

Burnett continued, “I think she was 22 years older and she said, ‘Kid, if you ever need me for anything, give me a call.’ And about three or four years later — because that was 1959 or ’60 — I had a variety hour that I was going to do for ABC or NBC, I can’t remember. And they said, ‘But you need to get a major guest star if you’re going to do this one-hour show.’ ”

After a producer suggested calling Ball, Burnett — after mustering the courage — took the television icon up on her offer.

“So I got up the nerve and I got her on the phone at her office, and she said, ‘Hey, Kid, you’re doing great. What’s happening?’ And I was all over the place,” Burnett recalled in the conversation published Jan. 12.

But Ball was unfazed: “She stopped and she said, ‘When do you want me?’ ”

And Ball meant it.

“So I told her what it was and she said, ‘I’ll be there.’ So it was 1960-something, and the other guest star was Zero Mostel. It was just Lucy, Zero and me. And we had the best time,” Burnett added.

Ball ultimately made multiple guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show, which ran from 1967 to 1978, and Burnett reciprocated, appearing on The Lucy Show “several times,” she told Dern.

Burnett previously recounted the story of how Ball helped her out by guest-starring on her variety show — and recalled the comedy legend’s tremendous impact on her — in The Carol Burnett Show: Mother of All Marathons.

“The woman who influenced me probably the most was Lucille Ball,” Burnett said in the special, which was released in 2025.

Also in the special, Burnett recalled receiving flowers from Ball the day that she died of a rupture of the aorta on April 26, 1989 — the very same day Burnett turned 56.

“We were very close, and she always sent me flowers on my birthday,” Burnett explained. “So this one morning I got up, turned on the television set — it was my birthday — and she had died that morning, on my birthday. And that afternoon, I got the flowers that said, ‘Happy birthday, Kid.’ “