That's What I Appreciates About You: Why Squirrelly Dan Talks That Way On Letterkenny (2024)

Squirrelly Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) is a fan-favorite character in the long-running Canadian sitcom Letterkenny, and he's known for a humorous vocal tic. Originally a YouTube series called Letterkenny Problems, the show was picked up by Canadian streaming service Crave and debuted in 2016, with Hulu serving as the show's American distributor since 2018. Letterkenny was created by Jared Keeso, who plays protagonist Wayne, and centers around the daily happenings of the eponymous Ontario town's residents, divided up into subcultures that include the hicks, hockey players, skids, and more. Letterkenny's twelfth and final season premieres on December 25, 2023.

This is an impressive run and speaks to Letterkenny's enduring appeal. Not only has it been praised for its multi-layered portrayal of First Nations characters, but for the distinctly "Canadian" way the characters talk. Letterkenny is known for its hilarious slang terms, from "pitter-patter, let's get at 'er" to "ferda" to "chorin'". Wayne's best friend and fellow hick Squirrelly Dan has his own unique way of talking, and this was a conscious choice on actor K. Trever Wilson's part.

K. Trevor Wilson Adds S's To Squirrelly Dan's Dialogue To Stand Out From The Other Letterkenny Characters

Squirrely Dan is one of Letterkenny's most likable and memorable characters, when the show started, K. Trevor Wilson was the new guy on the block. Unlike Jared Keeso's Wayne and Daryl (Nathan Dales), Dan wasn't in the original YouTube series, so Wilson wanted to give him his own trait to make him distinct from his fellow hick friends (via Cinemablend). Thus, Squirrely Dan's habit of adding s's into random words was born. This took on a life of its own, with the actor consulting his co-stars and how to maximize the funniness of Dan's speech. Wilson said:

Of course, Squirrelly Dan's most famous Letterkenny catchphrase contains his trademark "s" insertion. Dan carries a bit of a torch for Wayne's sister Katy (Michelle Mylett), and he'll often say, "That's what I appreciates about you" in reference to something specifically other than her looks, and she'll wryly respond, "Is that what you appreciate about me?" In addition to Dan's open-mindedness and teddy bear-like sensibilities, it's this vocal tic that makes the character all the more endearing.

K. Trevor Wilson didn't just dream up Squirrelly Dan's s's vocal tic in his head; rather, when traveling throughout small towns in Canada as a standup comedian, Wilson would encounter many people who spoke in this distinct way. In the same interview with Cinemablend, Wilson shared that he and his fellow comedian friend Ryan Dennee would impersonate these speech patterns to make each other laugh on the road. Since they both found this so funny, Wilson thought it would be a good idea to give that same tic to Squirrelly Dan. Wilson said:

Wilson was clearly right to base a major aspect of his character off of other small-town Canadians, as that taps right into Letterkenny's mainstream appeal.

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Source: Cinemablend