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Andover’s Romano Duncan has gone viral for his amazing Boston accent, captured by his girlfriend Kacey Levesque.
Bayah, payah, bayah, chayah!
Translation from Pure Bostonian: Bear, pear, bear, chair.
Yes friends, every once in a blue moon we get an accent so Boston it charms a nation. Make that chaahms.
Andover native Romano Duncan, 25, has the kind of “drawped ah” Boston accent that turned Rob Mariano into “Boston Rob” on “Survivor.”
The voice of Duncan, is, as one Instagram commenter said — perhaps without even knowing Duncan’s name — “the voice of Dunkin.”
The internet has a new favorite video — and I dare you to watch it only once. In fact, I need you to watch this now.
@kaceylevesque Say the word on the beat, Boston edition 😭
Lowell native Kacey Levesque, a 2017 University of Rhode Island alum, filmed her boyfriend Duncan, a 2023 Plymouth State alum, playing the popular “Say The Word On Beat” game at their Gilford, New Hampshire home in December.
For the uninitiated, the online game, popular on TikTok, is exactly what it sounds like. A screen shows you eight photos — for example, bear, pear, chair, hair — and you say the words as they light up until your tongue twists.
“I’d seen the [game] trend on TikTok, and wanted to try it myself. I had a feeling that if I put it on YouTube on the TV, Romano would jump into the game. And he got very into it, as you saw,” Levesque, 30, says with a laugh. For the record, I detect no Boston accent from Kacey. (“I will randomly say a word with a Boston accent, but it’s very rare.”)
As fate would have it: Duncan was given all words with dropped-r’s.
As the video progresses, Duncan gets louder, thumping his chest, as the pictures of bears, pears, hair and chairs come at him, culminating in “BAYAH PAYAH BAYAH CHAYAH!” A yell, chest pounding, fist pumps of victory.
The escalating volume is also pure Boston, as Instagram commenters observed.
“The MOST Boston part: the rising levels of aggression with each run through for absolutely no reason”
“Boston Accent = yell until they understand you [crying laughing face]”
Levesque is all of us as she laughs at various points while filming.
“I was cracking up, so I started recording it,” she told me in our phone interview on Monday. “Originally it was just to send to my friends, but then I could not stop watching the video and laughing. I just knew I had to post this.”
Duncan, 25, had no clue Levesque was even filming. Well, to be more accurate — given the subject of this story — I should say he “had no culoo. Hawnest to Gawd, Lah-ren. I sway-ah.”
On Dec. 21, Levesque posted the video to TikTok — or as Duncan calls it in our interview, “TikTawk” — while he was fishing. “He had no idea. It was getting a lot of views really fast. When he got home, I was like, ‘I’ve got to tell you something. I posted this video of you, and it’s getting really popular.’”
“I was like, ‘What video?’” Duncan says with a laugh.
On Dec. 26, she posted it to Instagram. As I write this, it has almost 2 million views on TikTok — and another 158K likes, and 168K shares on Instagram.
Duncan’s accent has that genuine New England charm that can’t be faked. The whole video hits like a classic Casey Affleck scene-stealing moment in a Boston-set movie.
In a world desperate for good news and a smile, it’s hitting just right — like an iced Dunks in winter.
- “Coming back for a hit of this”
- “How do I make this my ringtone?
- “I’m f—g crying thank you for this”
- “My new comfort video”
- “this is what the British heard when we dropped their tea in the harbor”
- “I watch this 25 times and laughed harder each time”
Comments on TikTok include:
- “This should be Boston’s new ambulance siren”
- “It’s the escalating angah for me
- “I cannot breathe”
- “I FELL OVER laughing at this.”
- “Put this guy in a Dunkin commercial”
Duncan’s voice is a signature house-blend of his native Andover and Revere, his grandmother’s native Arlington and Cambridge, his grandfather’s Medford. Dashes of his years hanging out near his dad’s job in the North End.
“It’s just a mix of everything,” he tells me. “I’m an old soul. I always hung out with an older crowd. My grandmuthah’s old-school Italian. She’s from Ahlinton [Arlington] and Cambridge. My grandfathah’s from Medfid [Medford]. So that’s definitely where it originates. I started working young, and just from different people in Merrimack Valley — from Haverhill to Methuen to Lawrence, North Andover — that I hung out with, definitely made me sound like that.”
Levesque points out: “I have a handful of friends with Boston accents, but when I met Romano, I was like: Whoa. Where did you come from?” she said with a laugh. “Very few [Massachusetts] people have that thick of an accent.”
While a few of his buddies at Andover High had accents, “mine was definitely the thickest,” Duncan says.
Ditto in college. “At Plymouth State, I had plenty of buddies from Boston and Dorchester, Somerville, South Boston, Peabody — they definitely thought I was a hoot.”
The couple moved to Gilford last year. Levesque is a marketing manager for Power Play Fuel, Jamison’s Restaurant in Hampstead, New Hampshire, and Sawyers’s Ice Cream in Gilford. Duncan works at his father’s Andover-based company, GMS — Glen Meadow Services Painting & Carpentry.
But they may soon have a new side hustle as Boston accent content creators. Someone please alert the Wahlbergs and Afflecks — this is prime extra material.
“I think the plan is to pursue this, do another video,” Levesque says. “Romano might be the next Boston influencer.”
“Yeah, we got to get on this, Lauren,” Duncan adds.
“I think options are endless,” Levesque says. “If people really love Romano, we could get creative.”
Duncan adds: “Actually, yesterday, we flew home from Kacey’s family’s house in Florida and the Pats game was playin’ [on the airplane]. We had a night flight, and I noticed Casey recorded me.”
Duncan was watching the Patriots game and getting so pumped up, charmed passengers started laughing, smiling, and cheering on the Pats with him.
“I’m not sure if she got this, but at one point, I had the whole plane chantin’ for the Pats,” he says.
Kacey laughs. “That’s true. I actually don’t even need to get that creative. I just have to sneak videos” of our real life.
Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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