Jesse Tyler Ferguson had no qualms about Nathan Lane telling an adult joke to his 5-year-old son, Beckett.
Ferguson, 50, shared that he recently invited Lane, 69, and Pamela Adlon over to his home for dinner during the latest episode of his “Dinner’s on Me” podcast. Before the meal, he recalled using Lane’s very famous Disney character, The Lion King’s Timon, as a touchpoint for Beckett and son Sullivan, 3, to help recognize their impending guests. (Ferguson shares both his sons with husband Justin Mikita.)
“[Lane] was in town shooting something and we’ve been trying to meet for dinner and it was just easier. I was like, ‘Do you just want me to cook for you? I’ll cook for you.’ And he came over,” the Modern Family star explained. “And I was like, ‘You know Nathan, of course. You’ve listened to him, you know his voice from [Timon in] The Lion King.’ So I played ‘Hakuna Matata’ and on my way to school, they were singing ‘Hakuna Matata.’ And I was like, ‘This is Nathan who is coming to dinner!’”
He continued, “So that evening, Nathan comes over with Pam, and Nathan comes in, and my son goes, ‘I know who you are!’ He called him, ‘Athan.’ ‘Athan, Athan, Athan, I know who you are! You’re from ‘Hakuna Matata,’ you’re from Lion King!‘”
While Ferguson’s kids were clearly excited, the Only Murders in the Building star was allegedly less than enthused to be recognized for one of his past roles. “Nathan was like, ‘Oh god.’ Like, as if he was being stopped in the street by a fan,” Ferguson recalled with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Nathan, he’s a 5-year-old. Like, let it rest!’”
Lane’s response didn’t dissuade Ferguson’s eldest, though, as Beckett returned shortly after with something hidden behind his back. When he asked Lane to guess what he had, the Birdcage star didn’t hold back.
“He’s like, ‘Athan, Athan, Athan, guess what I have?’” Ferguson remembered. “And Nathan goes, ‘Hepatitis.’”
Despite the joke being more geared toward adults, Ferguson said he wasn’t bothered by Lane’s disposition.
“I loved him so much for just being authentically himself,” Ferguson confessed, adding that Lane has expressed that children aren’t his favorite crowd. “He’s like, ‘I don’t mind kids, but I also don’t relate to them. And I hear an opportunity for a joke and this is what I’m going to give.’”
Lane’s status as Disney royalty has made him a legend to the younger generations. The Emmy winner starred as lovable jungle meerkat Timon in all three of the original Lion King films, one half of the movie’s comedic relief duo with Ernie Sabella Nathan Lane Made Hepatitis Joke to Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s 5-Year-Old Son who portrayed warthog Pumba.
While there is plenty of kid humor throughout each Lion King — including Pumba’s farting noises, which came from Sabella trying to make Lane laugh in early morning recording sessions — there was one adult-leaning joke that made its way into the movie thanks to Lane’s improv.
While appearing on an April 2025 episode of SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend show, Lane admitted the scene where Timon puts on a skirt and distracts a group of hyenas came from him “screwing around” in the studio.
“I don’t even remember half of it, but, apparently I said, ‘What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?’ for some reason,” Lane recalled of the now-famous line. “It must have been a long day. And then they made it a song.”
Lane, who came out publicly as gay in 1999, nearly expanded his kids movie resume with another classic, 1996’s Space Jam. However, the Guys and Dolls actor claimed during a May 2025 interview with Vanity Fair that he was passed over for the role due to homophobia.
“I was told [being gay did] impact a movie that I didn’t really care about: Space Jam. I was up for the part that the guy from Seinfeld wound up playing,” Lane said, referencing the role of Michael Jordan’s publicist that ultimately went to Wayne Knight. “I was up for that part. Apparently the director saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that suggested I was too gay to play the part. So thank God, I didn’t have to do Space Jam.”