The sitcom Home Improvement was one of the most popular television series of its era. The show, which starred Tim Allen as Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, was so beloved that reruns continue to air on TV to this day.
One of the most iconic things to come out of the show was Tim Taylor’s signature “grunt.”
The grunt was featured more than once in the show’s opening theme alone. Tim also grunted during the episodes themselves, with the grunts sometimes taking on slightly different tones or sounds depending on the situations he reacted to.
Even though two decades have passed since Home Improvement aired its last episode, Tim still gets stopped by people who ask to hear his signature grunt. This is something he confessed to Kelly Clarkson when he was a guest on her talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show.
“It’s ‘grunt for me,'” Tim said when Kelly asked if Home Improvement fans ever cornered him at hardware stores.
He also told a story about being pulled over by a cop because his car is noisier than most. And when he rolled the window down and the cop recognized him, the cop responded by grunting just like Tim “The Tool Man” would have done. Funny enough, the cop still gave him a ticket!
You can hear Tim tell more stories about how Home Improvement fans interact with him by tuning in to his interview with Clarkson below.