- Kenneth Parcell
Infobox character
caption=Kenneth Parcell
name = Kenneth Parcell
first = "Pilot"
nickname = "Kenneth the Page"
gender = Male
age = 20s
occupation =NBC page
title =
family = Jesse Parcell (cousin)cite episode |title=Hiatus |episodelink= |series=30 Rock |serieslink=30 Rock |credits=Don Scardino (director);Tina Fey (writer) |network=NBC Universal |station=NBC |airdate=2007-04-26 |season=2 |number=21]
Steven (cousin)cite episode |title=MILF Island |episodelink=MILF Island |series=30 Rock |serieslink=30 Rock |credits=Kevin Rodney Sullivan (director);Tina Fey &Matt Hubbard (writer) |network=NBC Universal |station=NBC |airdate=2008-04-10 |season=2 |number=11]
religion =Christianity ("Eighth Day Resurrected Covenant of the Holy Trinity")
portrayer =Jack McBrayer
creator =Tina Fey Kenneth Ellen Parcell ("Kenneth the Page") is a
fictional character portrayed byJack McBrayer in theNBC sitcom "30 Rock ". Asupporting character in the first two episodes, the show's producers see him as an example of abreakout character . [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501577_pf.html '30 Rock,' Solid Enough to Rebuild a Thursday Foundation] ]Primary character traits
Kenneth is a perpetually cheerful
NBC page who hails fromStone Mountain, Georgia , where his father was apig farmer . After his father died, his mother's "friend" Ron moved in. It is heavily hinted that she had a sexual relationship with Ron, but Kenneth remains blissfully unaware of this. A graduate ofKentucky Mountain Bible College , his best friend is his mother and he credits his persistentoptimism to her as she has told him that, no matter how bad things seem, there is always someone else having a worse day, "like being stung by abee or getting a splinter or being chained to a wall in someone's sex dungeon."Kenneth appears to be in his early-or-mid-twenties (McBrayer is actually in his thirties) and he speaks with a distinctly Southern accent. An awkward yet polite rube, he is always smiling, excited and happy to do his menial job, which many people do not understand. He has explained in two episodes ("Pilot" and "The Head and the Hair") that this is because he loves television so much (This slogan, "I just LOVE television" is also on a shirt on the NBC website store). His love of television and his unending devotion to the NBC network are two of his most defining character traits. For example, he told Pete that he didn't want to "disgrace the peacock" in "The C Word" and, in "Corporate Crush", he was seen
knitting a woolenbikini with the NBC Peacock on it for his grandmother. Kenneth is generally well-liked at NBC, but has a determined nemesis in head Page Donnie (Paul Scheer ), who forced him to go through a humiliating series of tasks to get a new page jacket in "Rosemary's Baby" and worked overtime to subvert Kenneth's application to work at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Ironically, in real life McBrayer and Scheer are friends who have an acclaimed two-man comedy improv show together.As seen in "Hiatus", Kenneth has a considerably less friendly and more violent cousin named Jesse Parcell living in Needmore, Pennsylvania.
Role on the show
In initial episodes, it appeared as though Kenneth was not very familiar with some of
Liz Lemon 's staff, or even Liz herself. In the pilot episode, Liz refers to Kenneth only as "thatNBC page". As the show progressed beyond its initial episodes, the character became more familiar with other staff ofTGS with Tracy Jordan .Kenneth is often shown creating his own ideas for rather unusual
television show s and one (agame show called "Gold Case") became a reality in "The Head and the Hair", though it turned out to be very ill-conceived and was promptly shut down. When he pretends to be interviewed byConan O'Brien on the empty set of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien " in the episode "Tracy Does Conan ", it is shown that Kenneth dreams of making "hit movies" withZach Braff and that he is skilled atclogging to boot. In real life, McBrayer performed in numerous skits on "Conan" prior to being cast on "30 Rock". On theAugust 10 ,2007 episode of "Conan", McBrayer made acameo appearance as Kenneth.As seen in the episode "
Blind Date ," Kenneth is a very goodpoker player due to the fact no one can read his thoughts, since, according to Frank, "he doesn't have any." In a high-stakes game withJack Donaghy , Kenneth was goaded into betting his job and lost. However, Jack gave him his page jacket back and told him that he wasn't really going to fire him, but just wanted to remind him that he could. Jack then informed Liz that "in five years we'll all either be working for him... or be dead by his hand." Since this episode, Jack seems to have become convinced that the seemingly dim-witted, guileless Kenneth is actually a brilliant mastermind.Kenneth often acts as
Tracy Jordan 's personal assistant, even going so far as to get him hisnachos fromYankee Stadium . He is sometimes seen trying to impress or emulate Tracy, even wearing Tracy's chains when he wins them in a card game. Arunning gag with him seems to be someone taking his sandwich, which both Tracy Jordan andJack Donaghy have done."Up All Night" hints at the possibility of romance between Kenneth and Cerie. In "The Aftermath", they are seen dancing together on "Tracy's"
yacht . However it is implied he slept with Jenna, as after insulting Jenna to get her to eat, Jenna instead starts to enthusiastically kiss him and Kenneth later tellsJack Donaghy that "I guess we have to get married now." Kenneth hosted occasional parties that no one but Liz ever attended, until a series of lies about music stars and celebrities turned one such party into such a destructive bacchanalia that Kenneth sternly reprimanded the staff for their behavior, and then said he would never host another party for them again.In "Episode 209" it is revealed that Kenneth had quite a coke problem during his "Wall Street days." This is revealed to mean that he used to work at
Blockbuster Video and was addicted toCoca Cola around the time that the film "Wall Street" was popular on home video.In "Episode 210" Kenneth tries
coffee for the first time and is immediately hooked. When he sees himself in a mirror, he becomes depressed because he realizes he has broken a promise to his mother thatNew York City wouldn't change him. Kenneth leaves to return to his mother's home, but returns during the show-ending musical number, singing that he missed theMidnight Train to Georgia because the train actually left at 11:45 and he was misinformed about the time.In the Season 2 finale "Cooter", Kenneth is determined to be a page for NBC's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Head Page Donnie tries to ruin his chances by giving him false information and setting up a phony menial task so that Kenneth will miss the application deadline, while Jenna and Pete help him finish the application and get past Donnie. Kenneth does get his application in and is shown in the episode's last scene, sitting in a Beijing hotel room with an attractive woman. She says something in Chinese that catches him by surprise (it is shown earlier in the episode that Kenneth speaks
Mandarin fluently), and then an armed man bursts into the room and Kenneth says something else in Mandarin in a shocked but resigned way, as the episode and season ends.Religious and political views
Kenneth has been shown to be rather religious, telling Pete to think of
God in order to prevent him from cheating on his wife in "Black Tie". It is revealed in "The Fighting Irish" that his religion is "Eighth Day Resurrected Covenant of the Holy Trinity". His church (which was in the basement of aCuban restaurant) has a fire-and-brimstonespreacher , who scared away Tracy when Kenneth brought him there. It is revealed in "The C Word" that he attended Kentucky Mountain Bible College, where he studied television theory. In "Black Tie", Kenneth referred to "Footloose " as the movie where "those evil kids won in the end." Also he reads theBible in German, because it is the only way "to get all the versteckte Bedeutungen (hidden meanings)". In "Episode 210 ," he says he doesn't drink any hot beverages for that's "the Devil 's temperature."In "Subway Hero", Kenneth reveals that he has no political views since "choosing is a sin". Instead, he always submits write-in votes for God. However, according to Jack, those count as Republican.
Critical response
Slate magazine named the character as one of the reasons they were looking forward to the return of the show in fall 2007.cite web
url=http://www.slate.com/id/2174389/nav/navoa/#TheWireHBO
title=Oh, How We've Missed You!
accessdate=2007-09-23
last=Patterson
first=Troy
authorlink=
coauthors=
date=21
year=2007
month=September
publisher="Slate magazine "]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.