Taylor Swift says one teenage joke still follows her home, and Travis Kelce has to live with it

The detail that got the room laughing was not about fame, stadium tours or married life in general. Taylor Swift traced it back to being 14, meeting Abigail Anderson in Nashville, and finding a joke they never stopped doing.

Swift shared the story during a Q&A with Toy Story 5 director Andrew Stanton after a screening of the film in New York City on Sunday, November 1. While talking about why the movie struck such a personal chord, she said it reminded her of the kind of friendship where two people instantly understand each other’s very specific brand of weirdness.

In the clip below, Swift said that bond took her straight back to high school and to the friend who has been part of her life ever since, Abigail Anderson. The punchline was simple and oddly relatable. She said she and Anderson still slip into Napoleon Dynamite voices, and that it is something their husbands have to tolerate.

The comment landed because it was so specific. Swift did not frame it as a glamorous celebrity anecdote. She presented it as the kind of long-running inside joke that starts when you are young, makes no sense to anyone else and somehow survives every major life change that comes after.

She even broke into her own impression of Jon Heder’s character, which drew more laughter from the audience. For Swift, the point was not really the impression itself. It was what it represented, finding one person who recognizes you exactly as you are when you are being your strangest and most unfiltered self.

Why Toy Story 5 hit a nerve

Swift linked that memory to the relationship between Bonnie and Blaze in the film. Speaking after the screening, she said the story resonated because it captured what it means to meet someone whose silliness matches your own.

She said that when her family moved to Nashville when she was 14, she was the new kid at school and was trying to figure out who she should be friends with. Around her were plenty of girls who seemed cool or nice. But one classmate stood out.

That was Abigail, who Swift noted also has curly hair, a detail that reminded her of Blaze. What bonded them was not status or strategy. She said the two of them mainly wanted to talk in Napoleon Dynamite voices.

That memory became her way of explaining why the film affected her. Swift said the emotional core for her was the experience of finding someone who sees the unusual little category of person you really are. It was not just nostalgia for a school friendship. It was recognition of a connection that has lasted from adolescence into adulthood, complete with a joke that apparently never got retired.

The song that put her inside the Toy Story world

Swift’s appearance at the event also came with another personal link to the film. She wrote and recorded the song I Knew It, I Knew You specifically for Toy Story 5.

Earlier this year, she said she felt especially honoured to contribute because, outside of Randy Newman, she is the only songwriter to create music for a Toy Story film. Newman wrote You’ve Got a Friend in Me for the original 1995 movie, and Swift said she was thrilled to have his blessing before writing for this one.

She described that approval as wonderful and said she was dazzled by the opportunity. She also called Toy Story 5 her favourite film in the franchise.

That helps explain why her comments at the screening felt so personal. She was not there simply to promote a track attached to a major release. She was talking about a movie she said genuinely connected with her, and she chose to explain that through a friendship that began long before any of her current fame.

A friendship that has stayed visible for years

Anderson has remained a familiar figure around Swift’s life and work. She was in the crowd at the Eras Tour stop in Nashville, appeared in Miss Americana and has shown up in several Swift music videos, including Picture to Burn, I’m Only Me When I’m with You, New Romantics and Fifteen. That last song directly mentions her by name.

Their history has also overlapped with major milestones away from music. In September 2017, Swift was a bridesmaid when Anderson married photographer Matt Lucier. The report says they separated in 2021.

In September 2022, Anderson married Charles Berard, who is chief technology officer at Celero Commerce. The couple welcomed their first child, a son named Bennett, in August 2024. When Anderson announced the pregnancy on Instagram, she used a line from Swift’s song But Daddy I Love Him, writing, “I’m having his babyyyy...” with a blue heart emoji. Swift liked the post.

The friendship also had a place at one of Swift’s own headline moments. Anderson attended Swift’s wedding to Travis Kelce earlier this year at Madison Square Garden. She arrived in a Sau Lee gown featuring a fitted corset top with magnolia flower embellishments and a brown silk skirt.

All of that gives extra weight to the story Swift told at the screening. What sounded like a quick joke about spouses putting up with an old impression was also a snapshot of a friendship that has stretched across school, songs, documentaries, tours, weddings and parenthood. The unusual habit itself may be small. The fact that it is still there says much more.

For an audience expecting a polished film event answer, Swift offered something narrower and more memorable. The weird thing Travis Kelce has to put up with is not some mysterious celebrity ritual. It is an old Napoleon Dynamite bit that never died, because the friend who started it is still right there.