It might not rise to the level of a Left Shark moment, but a pastor from Westchester County had his moment in the media spotlight on Thanksgiving Day when he became a running gag during Al Roker’s live coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC.
The “Today” weatherman rode in a motorcycle sidebar to offer a street view of the crowds and festivities surrounding New York City’s Thanksgiving Day tradition. The early part of the parade featured several performers dressed up as giant fried eggs and sticks of butter. One of those sticks of butter — a man who has been identified as Donny Willis, a pastor at Westchester Church in Valhalla, N.Y. — got up close and personal twice with Roker as he ran alongside the sidecar.
Roker playfully pushed Willis away the first time Willis barreled into Roker’s live standup shot — “Get out of here, ya butter,” Roker said with a smile as Willis shouted into the camera “Happy butter Thanksgiving.” Despite the early hour and chilly temperature, Roker was fast on his feet in adding: “I can’t believe it’s not butter.”
Not too much later, when Roker was riding in the sidecar, Willis came running alongside him to yell “We’re buttering you up. Butter your turkey, butter your ham.” At that point, a visibly agitated Roker turned to the camera and quipped: “And that’s why everybody loves clowns.”
On Friday’s edition of “Today,” Roker said via telephone it didn’t dawn on him until later that it was the same Butter man who was following him on the route. He said he’d forgotten about his first encounter with Butter until he turned up again. “You’re just trying to get through it,” he told the “Today” team of doing the live shots. “It never dawned on me that this was the same guy.”
Willis described his version of events in a Twitter post Friday morning. He noted that Macy’s encouraged its clown performers to “run in those streets to incorporate a personal touch with the audience,” as Willis wrote. He said another parade participant encouraged him to check out Roker’s live-standup shot as the parade reached the Columbus Circle area
Willis’ encounter with Roker left him far behind his fellow butter-and-egg troupers. Willis maintained that he was sprinting to catch up with his group when he found himself running alongside Roker again in the sidecar. “It was not my intention to get in front of the camera again,” Willis wrote.
When the parade was done, Willis’ friends told him his Butter moment was sizzling on social media. That prompted him to create a Twitter account for the first time (donnywillis6). According to his bio on the Westchester Church website, Willis is a father of three who grew up in Louisiana and has been pastor at the church since 2017.
Willis sought to bring some perspective to his brush with fame.
“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,” he wrote. “It was an honor to play a part in the Al Roker/Butterman encounter.”
Speaking to “Today” on Friday, Roker described the incident as “the goofiest thing” and stressed that he “had no enmity” against Butter man. Cholesterol concerns notwithstanding.