Dustin the Turkey

Dustin the Turkey, more commonly simply Dustin, is a popular Irish television puppet, star of RTÉ's The Den since the 1980s. He claims his full name is Dustin Hoffman. He joined the show with fellow puppets Zig and Zag but remained with the show since their departure in the late 1990s. He also outlasted four human co-hosts: Ian Dempsey, Ray D'Arcy, Damien McCaul and Francis Boylan Jr., making him the longest serving member of the on-screen cast of The Den. He makes appearances outside of The Den, including an annual appearance on The Late Late Show Toy Show special at Christmas where he makes fun of the show's regular host Pat Kenny, as he did with the previous host, Gay Byrne. More recently he has turned his attention to two other popular Irish television personalities, Ryan Tubridy and Derek Mooney. A surprisingly provocative character, while he has been tamed down in recent years, Dustin would often make some very insulting remarks about various Irish celebrities and the services provided by RTÉ, and would say a lot of 'dodgy' things about politics and their practises that sometimes made one wonder how he got away with it. Insults targeted at County Leitrim came particularly thick and fast.

Identity

The identity of the puppeteer responsible for Dustin is not common knowledge.

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