LSN

KAPLAN - Move over “Poo Poo Broussard” of Lafayette because Vermilion Parish has “Cooyon Duhon.”

Five months ago Keith Duhon of Kaplan had an idea to help promote his t-shirt business - make a video and put it on “You Tube.” At the end of the video, he linked his T-shirt website.

Well, Duhon, decided to take it a step further when it came to making the video. When he made his first video, he also created the character, “Cooyon Duhon” which has become more popular than he could have imagined.

He put on a straw hat, fake glasses and fake teeth, then turned his video camera on and Cooyon Duhon came to life.

His first You Tube Video was “Tunder Rolls on a toilet bowl” is a take from Garth Brooke’s “Thunder Rolls.” “Tunder Rolls” was a huge success with 160,000 page views. He had worn fake teeth for the first video on but he no longer wears them because they hamper his singing. He now colors his two front teeth with black markers.

He has since followed “Tunder Rolls” with 19 other videos.

His most popular video, “I can’t survive, Obama” has 279,000 page views. The song borrows the music from the old disco song “I will survive” sung by Gloria Gaynor.

Duhon’s version pokes fun of Obama and how, since he has been president, Duhon can not survive. He is having to eat potted meat sandwiches. In his song, he says he does not make enough money to buy sausage for his gumbo.

Other “You Tube” videos are “Staying Alive” or “I got friends with ugly faces.”

“I try to make sure I put a Cajun flare on it,” said Duhon. “I love being an American but I do not like our government. I try to touch (in my songs) on what people are thinking but do not say.”

Cooyon Duhon has become somewhat of a local celebrity. He was in the recent Kaplan Mardi Gras Parade and everyone wanted to take a photo with him. He also had his own float.

Cooyon Duhon is about to get into the television commercial business. In the next week he is expected to make a TV commercial for Larry’s Super Food in Kaplan.

“I am getting so much feedback. It is overwhelming,” he said.

Duhon has been trying to produce a video every week. It takes him about a week to write the words and produce the video. He does the filming in back of his wife’s beauty shop.

When Duhon is not transforming into Cooyon Duhon, a name his uncle Jimmy gave him when he was a child, he is working offshore seven and seven.

He has a couple of special appearances planned, including next year’s Cattle Festival in Abbeville.

“I enjoy making people laugh,” he added.

As for as the future of Cooyon Duhon, “I am going to go with the flow and see what happens.”