Lower Hudson Valley Pastor Feuds With Al Roker On Thanksgiving
A lower Hudson Valley pastor aka "Butter Man" and Al Roker were trending for their viral encounters during the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Donny Willis is a pastor at the Westchester Church in Valhalla. During the Thanksgiving Day Parade, he was dressed up like a stick of butter and performed in the parade along with giant fried eggs and others
Al Rocker was on the street for parts of NBC's coverage of the parade. The two bumped into each other on live tv.
"Get out of here, ya butter,” a smiling Roker said as Willis said, "Happy butter Thanksgiving,” Willis responded. Rocker added, "I can’t believe it’s not butter.”
Willis, 32, says a friend asked him to volunteer as part of Macy’s “Breakfast Clowns” in the parade. He told Variety he didn't plan on interrupting Roker's live shot.
“I had no idea that this was going to be a thing. At all,” Willis told Variety.
Later in the broadcast, Willis and Roker had another encounter. Rocker was in a sidecar when Willis ran up next to him and said "We’re buttering you up. Butter your turkey, butter your ham.”
An annoyed Rocker responded with, "And that’s why everybody loves clowns.”
Willis said he didn't plan on being on camera a second time and was simply running to catch up to his group.
“I was simply the guy dressed like a stick of butter with the goal of making people who had been standing on the street since 5 a.m. smile and be happy that they came to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade,” Willis wrote on Twiter, which he started after his moment with Roker started trending. “It was an honor to play a part in the Al Roker/Butterman encounter.”
The weatherman later wanted to make it clear, he was joking and wasn't mad.
"I want people to make sure, there was no enmity,'' Al said on TODAY Wednesday. "Especially now that we know he's a man of the cloth. He's pastor-ized.
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