John “Jack” Palmer, a Hermon resident whose hilariously flubbed lines about chicken pot pie in a commercial for a local restaurant made him an internet celebrity, died Friday at age 86, according to a Facebook post by Dysart’s Restaurant.
Known around the world as the “buttery, flaky crust” guy, Palmer and his wife, Sonja, were asked to be in a Dysart’s commercial in 2013 because of their decades-long love of the longtime truck stop and restaurant in Hermon.
Jack Palmer’s one line — “baked in a buttery, flaky crust” — proved near-impossible for him to get out without messing up the words, much to the chagrin of Sonja. After multiple takes, his wife tried her hand at it, and she screwed it up too — much to her husband’s delight.
The director of the video, Ric Tyler of local marketing firm Sutherland Weston, knew he had comedy gold. He edited the bloopers into a video and uploaded it to Dysart’s YouTube channel. It went viral not long after.
As of Monday, the video has received 9.6 million views and counting. It resurfaces every few years, including most recently on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in 2020. It’s been shared by celebrities and regular people alike, and even inspired a “Saturday Night Live” sketch starring Will Ferrell and Kate McKinnon.
Mary Dysart Hartt, one of the longtime owners of Dysart’s who retired a few years ago, said she remembered the Palmers being around when Dysart’s first opened in 1967, when she was 12 years old. The couple — or at least Jack — came to the restaurant nearly every day for more than five decades.
“He was the most loyal customer you can imagine,” Hartt said. “His laugh was infectious. He was always smiling. I remember right after the blooper video went viral, they were just totally unaware of it. That fame did not change them one little bit.”
“People say we’re famous, and I don’t like that. We’re just ordinary people,” Palmer told the Bangor Daily News in 2016. “Kids come up to me and say ‘baked in a buttery, flaky crust’ and then say ‘Ha, I got it!’ I say it in my sleep now. And I still screw it up.”
Prior to his internet fame, Palmer worked for the Bangor Daily News for 37 years, laying out pages for print. He retired in 2005. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Sonja, and his children.
