Culture

The Highs and Lows of Ken Bone's Fifteen Minutes of Fame


[upbeat music]

Nearly 67 million people tuned into the debate.

And the surprise star was the man in the red sweater.

The internet has determined a clear winner.

Ken Bone.

♪ I’m your man to love ♪

The legend of Ken Bone.

Ken Bone, you’re so charming.

The New York Times calls you

America’s new sweetheart.

All day has been a media blitz.

[Man] Ken’s a good guy.

Everyone knows he’s a good guy.

[Reporter] You got the red sweater, cookie.

Ken bone, there you are, crossing the Delaware

with George Washington.

Does it feel strange

to sort of become an overnight sensation?

[drumming]

Are you famous, Daisy?

Are you famous like daddy?

Your famous like daddy.

Scene one, take one.

Can I take this thing off?

It’s like hot and I don’t like wearing it.

Nice, careful it’s a collector’s item.

I’m a blue collar worker or started out as one at least.

I work at a power plant,

and I’m just a regular dude.

Wait, one more question from Ken bone

about energy policy Ken?

What steps will your energy policy take

to meet our energy needs?

I guess folks decided

that I was worth looking at for a while.

He so fluffy, ah!

Y’all are ready for this?

My wife never liked all the media stuff.

How busy it would make me.

How anxious it would make me.

She could see the toll that it would take on me sometimes.

Not being able to sleep at night.

Not being able to go to the grocery store

without being mobbed by a bunch of people

that want to talk to me and take pictures and stuff,

that went on for months and months.

I’d get up and I’d start doing media

about five o’clock every morning,

and I’d be so anxious about the day ahead

that I’d be shaking.

Like, this bad.

I’d try to get out of the shower

and my wife would have to help me towel off

so I could get dressed.

It’s not the part about being looked at

or being on camera or whatever.

It’s the expectations that people have,

along with recognition people heap responsibility on you.

And I had trouble feeling like

I’d be able to live up with that,

because my self image has always been very, very poor,

ever since I was a little kid.

It led to some mental health issues.

And now that everything’s over,

it leads to its own mental health issues

and different kinds of anxiety,

and almost a like withdrawal symptoms

from all that positive attention and praise.

♪ Stand tall ♪

♪ You know watch your soul ♪

♪ Are you ready ♪

Every piece of fan mail I’ve ever gotten

I’ve answered it.

At least to my knowledge.

If I missed one and you’re watching this,

I’m really, really sorry.

People would come by the house sometimes just to see me,

but more than people that knocked on the door

they were people driving by,

like they’re doing tours of Hollywood stars’ homes

in Southern Illinois.

I still don’t get it.

I don’t understand why people wanna talk to me.

I know it was a neat life experience and everything,

but I don’t get why it was so big.

I guess the whole election season

is just hatred and vitriol and nasty things.

And folks saw me and they’re like,

He looks like kindness.

He looks like love.

Which I don’t really get.

I thought I just kind of looked out of shape.

That’s why people latched onto me,

because I have this look.

Maybe it’s who I am inside, maybe it’s not.

But I look like the dude that greets you

with the dumb joke about golf.

You know, says hi to you at the barbecue.

The uncle that everybody liked to joke around with.

And I think that’s why they loved me so much

in the beginning.

Once you realize that that your time is over,

you have this…

You have this thought in your head.

Your whole life you’re like,

is this really all there is to life?

Like, getting up, going to work, coming home,

eating dinner, watching reruns, going to sleep.

I’m gonna do that again forever.

But you think maybe something amazing

will happen to me someday.

I have literally been in stadiums and theaters

where they’ll announce that I’m there

or show me on the screen,

and tens of thousands of people will chant my name

and cheer for me and scream,

like I just won the world series.

That’s never gonna happen again.

So it’s real easy to get down on yourself and be like,

I peaked at 33,

better than peaking in high school, I guess, but it’s over.

And I’ma live 50 or 60 more years of just existing.

So I think that’s the reason why I’m engaged these days

so I can feel like it was worth it.

So I can feel like I still have worth as a person,

even though I’m not getting

that external validation anymore.

This is Ken bone wishing you a very happy father’s day.

I’m the dude, the debate, the sweater.

You have more love than you have anger.

Yeah got it.

I still got like 160,000 followers on Twitter,

and four years later,

I still get people like responding to my dumb jokey tweet

or once a month or so I’ll get a fan letter.

And they say like, you’re my hero.

I appreciate it.

And I like it.

You know, having other people tell you you’re great

for no reason feels good.

I don’t really get it.

I just do my best to live up to it.

♪ And I’m sitting here waiting ♪

♪ I’m watching that turn start with service left town ♪

♪ But I’m thinking it will come round soon ♪

♪ So I’m gonna keep waiting ♪

♪ Waiting on that big time ♪

♪ And you know what that means ♪

♪ Cause you need it too ♪

♪ So show me show me where the line starts mister ♪

♪ I need to catch this flight ♪

♪ Cause I’ve been here before ♪

♪ And I still got my ticket I wanna ride some more ♪



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