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?” Chris Elliott, 55, asks his daughter Abby, 28, in mock annoyance. “It looks like a nose hair fell off and landed on your arm.”

is a tattoo. Like it would be to many baby boomers (the generation born between 1946 and 1964), the tattoo trend remains, by far, the biggest millennial mystery to Chris, who gained fame as a comic on

alum Abby (true to her millennial group born between 1981 and 1997) does have a few tattoos.

But maybe acting on impulse runs in the family? Abby reminds her dad that he took her to see

(directed by his favorite boomer icon, Steven Spielberg) when she was 8, and it has had lifelong repercussions for her. “Because Spielberg influenced

life, I had a huge fear of going in the water at our house in Maine after that. I thought everything I touched was a shark,” she says with a smile. “I eventually got over that. Now I just swim with sharks—in Maine, literally, and in show business, figuratively.”

All kidding aside, these two might just be the most grounded and family-focused duo in show business. Both are busy with current projects. Abby plays an indulged parent on Bravo’s

. And Chris just wrapped shooting the second season as Roland Schitt, the mayor of

which airs in January on PopTV (a cable company joint venture between CBS and Lionsgate Entertainment). The mutual enjoyment they get from making people laugh has all but erased the years between them. In fact, all four Elliotts—including mom Paula and sister Bridey, also a comedian and actress—share a love of comedy. “When we’re together, it’s electric,” Chris says. While most families gather for a simple Sunday barbecue, the Elliott foursome often fills a big bowl with ice water and competes to see how long they can keep their heads submerged (seriously).

“It’s amazing, especially if the women are wearing makeup—their faces make an impression in the ice,” Chris says. “This is definitely not something we do in front of my 92-year-old grandfather,” Abby adds, referring to Bob Elliott, who started the family’s comedic legacy as part of the legendary radio comedy team Bob and Ray.

Comedy may have helped Abby and her dad bond—or at least avoid those years when parents are a huge embarrassment. She never had to worry about her father telling a bad “dad joke” in front of her friends. “My dad’s jokes were hilarious, and he was getting paid for them,” she says. “My friends were star-struck, especially in 1998 when

came out. I was in fourth grade and I was certainly not allowed to see it, but the kids from my Catholic school loved quoting my dad’s lines.”

As Abby and her sister got older, a friendship with their parents evolved too. “Once we became teenagers, they made us feel like adults,” Abby says. “At 30, a lot of people worry about what their parents think of them. We always want to make our parents proud, but we’re not scared of them.”

Despite all they have in common, there are some generational differences beyond tattoos that perplex Chris. Social media, for example.

“I think my daughters are giving away their best jokes on Twitter,” he says. “I’m not on any social media, but it seems like my daughters and other people their age feel like they know each other before they even meet because they’re connected online. It’s like ‘Yeah, I follow you on Facebook, so I know you.’ ”

Another oddity for Chris is the fact that millennials are often stereotyped as slackers. “From what I can tell, not only do millennials work, but they seem to work way more than I did at their age,” Chris says. “I think a lot of boomers are secretly envious of millennials’ attitudes toward work. Things don’t seem like jobs to them and there isn’t the separation of work and daily life as there was in my generation. It seems to be part of life, instead.”

Ultimately, these two were born into very different eras, but they not only have each other’s backs, a comfort in the mercurial world of show biz, but they genuinely “get” each other as people. “I definitely feel a sense of being colleagues with both of my daughters,” Chris says. “Whether we’re helping each other with auditions or career decisions, I rely on them as much as they rely on me.”

Read what Abby Elliott has to say to baby boomers

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