Steve Martin and Martin Short said that they have colonoscopy parties with Tom Hanks every other year

Martin and Short spilled the dirt on their biennial festivities to a jealous Jimmy Kimmel, who wants to join the party (though he did get a colonoscopy with Katie Couric this year).

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“I want to mention this because it’s something that I really feel like I would love to be part of, and I don’t know if it’s possible at all. But you guys and Tom Hanks, and one other friend, you get together every other year for a colonoscopy party,” Kimmel asked Martin and Short during their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

“Yes there’s the Christmas party, and there’s the colonoscopy party. That is true,” Martin, 72, confirmed. “Because we thought, everybody at our age — not your audience, it’s certainly not anyone here in this studio — but at a certain age you want to get a colonoscopy, I think it’s after 50.”

Short, 68, corrects Martin that the American Cancer Society now recommends that people start getting colonoscopies to check for colorectal cancer at age 45, a change made in May.

Martin explains that the four friends decided to tackle the somewhat miserable colonoscopy prep — which involves ditching all solid foods and drinking a half-gallon of a laxative drink — together, for support.

“We thought it would be easier,” he said. “It’s all men, and we celebrated. So we all came over, we played poker and we watched some funny movie and you drink all the [colonoscopy drink].”

“We’re very excited, we go to Steve’s house around 5 p.m. the night before, we call it Colonoscopy Eve in Canada, and it’s catered, there’s Jell-o, there’s not much, because you have to purge all that, and we toast,” Short added.

But, they joked, the bathroom situation is complicated.

“What’s shocking with Steve — you know he’s a wealthy man — who would think he’d have one bathroom,” Short teased. “By 10 p.m. the bathroom looks like day 14 of a Carnival Cruise.”

“I thought the bathroom ended up looking like a Jackson Pollock,” Martin joked.

And after the friends are done with their colonoscopies, they go out for a well-deserved meal.