For more than a year, a clever person purporting to be Kenny Powers has been delighting fans of HBO’s Eastbound & Down on Twitter with hilariously off-color dispatches (example: “Doing free pap smears today on Miami Beach to raise money for Haiti. Let’s get our troops home!â€). But even though his tweets seem like things the fictional, disgraced former major leaguer might say — and despite a follower count that dwarfs that of HBO’s official account — Twitter’s KFUCKINGP is in no way affiliated with, or paid for by, EB&D, its makers, or its network. Plenty have been confused, though, so HBO and Eastbound star Danny McBride would like to clear things up before the show’s second season starts on September 26.
“Kenny Powers is a full-grown man, so he would never Twitter,†McBride tells Vulture in an e-mail. “But Kenny is also a man of the people. He doesn’t care if the public feels the need to impersonate him. That just puts him up there with the big dogs like Santa and Elvis. Knowing that it’s a very funny committed fan makes us proud.â€
The funny and committed fan behind Kenny Powers’s fake Twitter — who requested we not reveal his name — is a twentysomething from New York City with aspirations in comedy writing. “I [tweet as Kenny] because I see it not only as great fun, but also as a way to stay sharp comedically while looking for my own big break,†he tells us. (For more practice, he recently also started tweeting as Kenny’s assistant, Stevie Janowski.) Last week he added a disclaimer to his Twitter page (“Not affiliated w/ HBO or Eastbound & Down“) at the request of HBO. “I was never trying to fool anyone,†he says. “A number of people think it’s Danny McBride, and I’ve corrected them. I’ve also never said I’ve worked for HBO, just that I was a writer myself.â€
But professional ghost-tweeting is something he’s open to: “Please, anyone at Gary Sanchez Productions, Funny or Die, or even the freakin’ Paul Reiser Show,†he says, “if you’ve liked what you’ve seen and want to bring me on in any damn capacity, reach out to me at [email protected] and let’s chat.â€