Althouse: Shatner! Palin! On Conan!

December 12, 2009

Shatner! Palin! On Conan!

(I couldn't find the Shatner-on-Carson "Mr. Tambourine Man" that Palin invokes, but you can listen to the album version here.)

63 comments:

alan markus said...: That's what I call "Must Watch TV". Then again, I am easily amused. Thanks to a heads up last night from the blogosphere, I was able to catch it "live".

As someone commented elsewhere this morning, note the robust response from the audience - I expected a big collective groan when she appeared.

I anxiously await for her to appear on Letterman - if he's man enough to face her in person.; 12/12/09, 11:42 AM
Adele Mundy said...: Palin should never go on Letterman. Make the Tonight show her only stopping place. Punish your enemies and reward your friends. Thats why she should shun mainstream media and seek out the alternative media. Think outside of the box.; 12/12/09, 11:44 AM
AllenS said...: It would be cool if Palin went on Letterman, and when he got snotty, and you know he would, she would then slap his face.; 12/12/09, 11:46 AM
Amexpat said...: I'm not a Palinite, but I thought she did great. It's also a good way to disarm your critics.

Shatner has the distinction of doing the worst cover version of both a Dylan and a Beatles song (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds).; 12/12/09, 11:50 AM
jag said...: I hate this merger of politics and entertainment. Does anyone out there really think that Adams or Jefferson or Lincoln would lower themselves to do this? The Republic deserves better.; 12/12/09, 11:50 AM
Adele Mundy said...: Well Lincoln might have liked to be on the Logo channel.; 12/12/09, 11:56 AM
Adele Mundy said...: And Jefferson might have bought Oprah.

He liked his slaves with some meat on them.; 12/12/09, 11:57 AM
vbspurs said...: No Spock? He sings, too, you know.

Cheers,
Victoria; 12/12/09, 12:03 PM
chuck said...: Lincoln would lower themselves to do this?

Lincoln? Absolutely! Isn't he the guy who wrestled Armstrong?; 12/12/09, 12:07 PM
Adele Mundy said...: I would admit that I would love to see John and Abigail Adams on "Family Fued."; 12/12/09, 12:10 PM
Darcy said...: Yep. That's a dumb woman, there. ;-)

Love Shatner too. Funny guy.; 12/12/09, 12:11 PM
vbspurs said...: Good answer! Good answer!; 12/12/09, 12:13 PM
Adele Mundy said...: Even jag would have to admit that William Howard Taft would be a natural on "The Biggest Loser."; 12/12/09, 12:19 PM
Kev said...: Did anyone else read this headline and think, for just a second, that it might refer to some new version of "The Night Before Christmas" where Santa decided to replace his reindeer with celebrities?; 12/12/09, 12:23 PM
Adele Mundy said...: If Donny Osmond is Dancer and Adam Lambert is Prancer and Joe Biden is Dunder then who the heck is going to be Blitzen.; 12/12/09, 12:33 PM
AllenS said...: Wolf Blitzen. He has a TV show.; 12/12/09, 12:41 PM
Adele Mundy said...: That would work. I was going to suggest Cedarford. He was a big fan of the Blitzen.; 12/12/09, 12:43 PM
Anonymous said...: I hate this merger of politics and entertainment.

She's an unemployed housewife, and not a candidate for anything. She's entitled to do whatever she likes.

Does anyone out there really think that Adams or Jefferson or Lincoln would lower themselves to do this? The Republic deserves better.

Adams or Lincoln might well have appeared in a satirical play or a comical declamation in a pub after work. Such things were the equivalent of a TV show nowadays, but were not well documented. I don't think you can say confidently that they wouldn't have done something similar as modern-day politicians.; 12/12/09, 12:44 PM
bearbee said...: Lincoln as a stand-up comic.; 12/12/09, 12:49 PM
Adele Mundy said...: JFK would have been a natural on "Rock of Love."; 12/12/09, 12:50 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: I anxiously await for her to appear on Letterman - if he's man enough to face her in person.

She has already said that she would never do this because it might boost his ratings. Why would she want to do anything that would be evern remotely beneficial to Letterman?

I would be very dissapointed if she did.

No one holds a grudge better than me, unless it is my husband. Screw me over and I never forget and never forgive. I hope that Palin is the same way.

Shatner cracks me up. He has certain created his own unique persona.; 12/12/09, 12:53 PM
Adele Mundy said...: I would have paid good money to see Gerald Ford on "Wipeout."; 12/12/09, 12:54 PM
Adele Mundy said...: Plus I am pretty sure that Strom Thurmond is NeNe's real father on the "Real Housewives of Atlanta."; 12/12/09, 12:57 PM
AllenS said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/12/09, 12:58 PM
Palladian said...: There's got to be a better way...; 12/12/09, 12:59 PM
traditionalguy said...: Shatner is hard working and a very intelligent winner. His grandparents were Jewish refugees to Canada from eastern Europe originally named Schattner. (He could also be my body double). Sweet Sarah Palin is making friends among the media by showing a better coached PR style lately. Are they so sure she will split the GOP or is that talking points from the Dems? Stay tuned.; 12/12/09, 1:00 PM
AllenS said...: Tune in to Fox tonight for the new season. Dueling With The Politicos starring Vice President Aaron Burr. Then, at ten, Fun With a Kite starring Bennie Franklin.

Don't miss it!; 12/12/09, 1:00 PM
Palladian said...: Well I can change that in a hurry!; 12/12/09, 1:05 PM
knox said...: She's an unemployed housewife

Well, generally housewives don't make millions selling books and giving speeches.; 12/12/09, 1:11 PM
Michael Haz said...: That was great television! I especially liked watching the bongo player doing everything he could to keep from laughing out loud at the setup Shattner was getting.; 12/12/09, 1:16 PM
Kev said...: OK, I finally got to watch the video (it crashed my browser the first time I tried), and that was amazing--especially the look on Shatner's face when he realized that Palin was going to reciprocate. Great TV indeed!; 12/12/09, 1:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Who can't picture Bill and Hillary and Monica on Jerry Springer back in the day?

wv: logies - coughed up bits of wisdom; 12/12/09, 1:42 PM
Bob From Ohio said...: Nicely done. She is getting excellent advice lately on her PR. Her tour has been one triumph after another.

Her "second act" has been brilliant so far. Is this the "real" Sarah or was last fall?

BTW, she should hire the make up/hair people at the Tonight Show if she does run. She looks better on that video than I have ever seen her.; 12/12/09, 2:23 PM
John Stodder said...: What about Bill Clinton playing an extra-sweaty version of "Heartbreak Hotel" on Arsenio Hall on a very phallic-looking alto sax?

Before that appearance, he was running third behind Bush 41 and Perot. From that point on, his poll numbers shot upward. That show was the turning point.

Palin has done herself a world of good with this book tour and this is the capper. If you're afraid of her, be more afraid.; 12/12/09, 2:24 PM
Synova said...: I remember being embarrassed by Clinton with the saxophone, but that's because I was young and thought that adults were dignified and crap.

"Does anyone out there really think that Adams or Jefferson or Lincoln would lower themselves to do this?"

I do now. Wouldn't have when I was 18 or 22. But I think that our early politicians and office holders were generally far "earthier" than we expect. What is preserved (and included in History books for children) is generally what they did in a deliberately official manner so the mode is utterly formal.

True, I think we still have some of the published muck-raking and the editorial cartoons, or some of them, that Franklin did.

When I hear about unprecedented rudeness during political campaigns I sort of laugh, because it really is a silly charge to make.; 12/12/09, 2:39 PM
Beta Conservative said...: Just a hilariously written and executed piece of musical theater. The best 4 or 5 minutes of TV I've seen in a while.; 12/12/09, 3:11 PM
Synova said...: Also... Shatner was much better. He picked better passages and the delivery was better and holding the book up like a prop was better.

Palin did a fine job but it wasn't even close as a *performance* as Shatner.

I had thought that Shatner's delivery of her resignation speech was funny and well-done and people complaining should have more of a sense of humor. (Anything I actually saw of Tina Fey was pretty funny, too.)

Letterman wasn't funny. But then, when is he ever?; 12/12/09, 3:12 PM
Adele Mundy said...: Only when he recited his wedding vows.

That was hilarious.; 12/12/09, 3:17 PM
AllenS said...: Synova said...
"Also... Shatner was much better."

Wait a minute. If Palin hadn't showed up, would Shatner's recitals been funny/amusing at all?; 12/12/09, 3:20 PM
Synova said...: Oh, Palin showing up and doing Shatner's biography was really funny.

I'm just saying that his delivery was much better, which makes sense because that's what he *does* after all.; 12/12/09, 3:30 PM
AllenS said...: I just thought of something. I've noticed for quite a while that conservatives have a better sense of humor than liberals, or progessives, or whatever they want to call themselves. You can see it on this blog. How many times have a lib/prog ever been funny. They are unable to show any type of self-deprecating humor. Let's face it, if you're not willing to laugh at youself, who can you laugh at? For a lib, it's easy, you just make fun of other people. Libs suck.; 12/12/09, 3:34 PM
Palladian said...: "I just thought of something. I've noticed for quite a while that conservatives have a better sense of humor than liberals, or progessives, or whatever they want to call themselves."

How can you have a sense of humor when you're trying to save the World!

Even when leftists try to be funny, it always comes out as bitter and mean-spirited.; 12/12/09, 3:51 PM
Paul said...: "What about Bill Clinton playing an extra-sweaty version of "Heartbreak Hotel" on Arsenio Hall on a very phallic-looking alto sax?'

That was a tenor, not an alto, and if I ever sounded as lame as that I'd never work again.; 12/12/09, 3:53 PM
Robt C said...: Somebody mentioned earlier the applause she got. I think most of it was for her, but I also think a fair bit of it was in appreciation for the setup. That being said, I thought it was interesting that almost all of the band members applauded, and not just polite clapping, but robust applause with big smiles. I can't remember ever seeing late-night band members applaud anything before.; 12/12/09, 3:55 PM
AllenS said...: Palladian,

I'm wondering, if there was a conservative TV show to rival Saturday Night Almost Alive, would it work?

I think it would. Conservatives are better at humor. I'll say it again, Libs suck.; 12/12/09, 3:58 PM
Paul said...: "I just thought of something. I've noticed for quite a while that conservatives have a better sense of humor than liberals, or progessives, or whatever they want to call themselves"

That's true in general.

Conservatives are happier. They are more grateful and appreciative for their great fortune to be free men, which is an historical anomaly.

Liberals are petulant, ungrateful children who hate America, capitalism, and the very source of their freedom, which they foolishly take for granted.; 12/12/09, 4:01 PM
David Walser said...: It was a fun bit of TV and well done by all involved.

Still, my take away was how short Shatner is. He must have been on stilts for Star Trek!; 12/12/09, 4:02 PM
garage mahal said...: True true. I mean, look at all the conservative comedians we have. There's .....*thinking*...Dennis Miller. Who else?; 12/12/09, 4:08 PM
Synova said...: "Still, my take away was how short Shatner is. He must have been on stilts for Star Trek!"

Conan must be hugely tall.

Palin isn't short either, and she looked tiny.; 12/12/09, 4:21 PM
Synova said...: "True true. I mean, look at all the conservative comedians we have. There's .....*thinking*...Dennis Miller. Who else?"

There's those "red neck" comedian guys that did that tour together.

I honestly don't know how conservative anyone is, but a whole lot of the "funny" out there is family and culture based and other than, oh, Seinfeld, what comedian is out there making fun of that demographic and making them laugh at themselves?

On the larger principle, though, I think that about the same time as any comic discovers political affiliation they lose whatever funny they ever had.

Many years ago I heard Leno (I think it was) talking about how he'd been hired to do his thing at a Republican event (Arnie got elected) and he explained how his friends and colleagues got on his case. He explained that his job wasn't politics, it was to do comedy, essentially for anyone who wanted him to.

Curiously, since that time Leno seems to have been more publicly liberal, and it makes a person wonder if his explanation of the foundational responsibility of comedy fell on deaf ears.

It's not comedy but music, but we've got Norwegians complaining about inviting Toby Keith to sing for the Nobel Prize winners because he's not politically acceptable.

I would hope that if conservative political organizations started officially shunning performers for unacceptable politics and demanding proper attitudes we'd recognize it for the fascism it is.

(Toby Keith *was* invited, so whoever organized that concert didn't have the ideological test some thought they ought to have.); 12/12/09, 4:33 PM
Synova said...: "that demographic"... I mean liberal coasters.

I'm sure there are some.; 12/12/09, 4:35 PM
Alex said...: garage - Dennis Miller is a libertarian, but I guess anyone to the right of you uber-lefties is a right-wing mouth breather.; 12/12/09, 4:35 PM
traditionalguy said...: Synova...Shatner is listed at 5'9'' but he looks more like 5'8''. He is 77 years old and may have become shorter by naturally losing his spinal disc volumn. Palin is 5'5'', but she wears high heels, making them look the same height.; 12/12/09, 4:51 PM
Peano said...: "Conan must be hugely tall."

He's 6'4".; 12/12/09, 5:00 PM
John Stodder said...: True true. I mean, look at all the conservative comedians we have. There's .....*thinking*...Dennis Miller. Who else?

Conservatism is the basis of most comedy, satire in particular. Most comedy is, in effect, the established order finding humor in the pretensions of the new, the trendy, the euphemistic, the law of unintended consequences. Comedians might be liberal in their voting and in the benefit concerts they agree to perform, and they might make fun of Republicans more than Democrats because of their partisan bias, but the humor is at the expense of what liberalism is built on -- as has been the case for centuries.

A good example is George Carlin. I'm sure he went to his grave thinking himself to be a liberal, even a radical. But if you listen to his bits, liberal ideas are the target at least 75 percent of the time. His language obviously offends self-described conservatives, and his riffs on the deceptions of religion probably don't go over well. But his essence is conservative.

Oddly enough, the wv: Sienfi; 12/12/09, 6:12 PM
jag said...: This 'moth to flame' relationship politicians have with the entertainment industry illustrates how weak our democracy actually is. It's not about serving the country and leaving office 'with empty hands' as Jefferson said and did. It's about fame and money and more fame. I stand by my disdain for this development in our democracy.; 12/12/09, 6:43 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: That was a very nice wellcome she got ..

I felt a tingle up my leg.; 12/12/09, 8:48 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Also... Shatner was much better. He picked better passages and the delivery was better and holding the book up like a prop was better.

Palin did a fine job but it wasn't even close as a *performance* as Shatner.

I don't think that anyone is surprised that a 77 year old professional actor is better at his craft than such a politician.

I thought it was very well done on her part. Maybe not the actual dramatic reading of Shatner's book, but the whole thing. He was such a ham during her recitation. It was great. And, then for them to go off stage arm in arm after this was also a nice touch.

As someone pointed out, she seems to have a much better coach now. Or, maybe she just has a knack for this sort of thing (I tend to suspect planning when it comes to politicians).; 12/12/09, 8:55 PM
John Stodder said...: Another politico/entertainment/reality-TV gbullet we thankfully missed:

"Bob and Ethel Plus 11."; 12/12/09, 9:04 PM
Synova said...: "As someone pointed out, she seems to have a much better coach now."

Or she has a better coach when she's the one selecting the coach. ;-); 12/12/09, 10:51 PM
Paul said...: "Or she has a better coach when she's the one selecting the coach. ;-)"

Yeah she was sabotaged by her own "team".; 12/13/09, 1:17 AM
vbspurs said...: That was a very nice wellcome she got ..

That was the most surprising part, by far. I hate being a conservative, sometimes, because I feel like thanking that crowd for being nice to her...that's sad.

Although, it reminds me of when President Bush made a cameo on "Deal or No Deal" and the reception he got was amazingly warm.

Or maybe both incidents just highlight how much each of us pay attention to the echo chambers of the Blogosphere, who I still don't think are representative of mainstream America.

Cheers,
Victoria; 12/13/09, 1:32 AM
vbspurs said...: Palin has done herself a world of good with this book tour and this is the capper. If you're afraid of her, be more afraid.

Palin also appeared at Walter Reed recently, and one of the military nurses (who hates Palin) gushed at how nice and even charming she was. She said she really appreciated how she shook the staff's hands, as most celebs just ignore them. The patients, she continued, were delighted to see her.

She did also mention, however, that she felt that the military wouldn't be as accomodating to Jon Stewart if he were on a book tour, and wanted to visit military posts as Palin has (Ft. Hood, etc). I'm sure that's true, but then Palin has a son who is in Iraq and made a point of visiting Landstuhl as Governor, as well as big upping the military at every given opportunity. It's just different.

Cheers,
Victoria; 12/13/09, 1:38 AM