Being named Kevin is a surprisingly complicated burden when it comes to pop culture.
Sometimes things are named after you. A movie will come out called We Need to Talk About Kevin, and you’d think, yes, lol, we do! Let’s all talk about me! And then you buy a ticket to the movie and find out the titular Kevin is a mass shooter.
Or you’ll find out that Annie Murphy, the star of one of your favorite comedies, Schitt’s Creek, is starring in a TV show with your name in the title. Then you’ll find out that TV show is titled Kevin Can F--- Himself. Well, OK, then...
You’ll spend the entirety of the ’90s with people screaming your name in your face, doing their best Catherine O’Hara impression, or slapping their cheeks like Macaulay Culkin putting on aftershave after you introduce yourself. (You’ll later learn how lovely it is to be so closely associated with Catherine O’Hara.)
Or you’ll, decades after that, RSVP to the premiere of an animated series called Kevin, because you think how hilarious it would be to attend “the premiere of…me.” And then, while watching said series, you will learn that it’s about a cat going through an existential crisis whose defining characteristic is his prolapsed butthole.
Like I said…complicated.
This story appears on the Obsessed by Kevin Fallon Substack. To read the rest, head to Substack.
