Meet Kenneth, Willard’s good-natured and fairly oblivious neighbor. Kenneth is never seen without a can of Coke in hand. His “rig”‘s been in the shop which is why you see him walking in the video. He enjoys circulating the neighborhood and chatting with or TO anyone who is outside. In the video below, Willard was overwhelmed because he wasn’t expecting company and hadn’t rehearsed what he wanted to say. Later, he felt very guilty for his lack of responsiveness. He may be slipping past Kenneth’s place under the cover of darkness (so as to avoid more chit-chat) to leave a 12-pack of Coke to make up for it.

The original pattern I used for Kenneth was actually intended to look like a hippo, and I had visions of a kindly lady hippo creature. But as I cut it up and made it an open mouth version, it evolved into more of a monster. As I played with it as a puppet, a classic old man Vermonter accent emerged from my mouth and suddenly Kenneth was born. Lately, I have been thinking about the rural gathering places that I was constantly in and out of as a youth, and the old men that would sit around and chit chat about not very much at all. I suppose Kenneth emerged from the collective memories of this upbringing: loud, gruff, but ultimately well-meaning old men shuffling around the village making small talk. Kenneth represents the creme-de-la-creme of this cohort, as he never participates in spiteful gossip or begrudges the “flatlanders.”