While I watched and listened to Shatner read to the background walking bass and bongo, I couldn't help but recall Paglia's remark that "[Palin] uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist." ("Obama Surfs Through", Salon, November 12, 2008). Shatner was poking fun of Palin, but I could also hear the long, loud and flatulent rrrip as he punctured Paglia's bloated homage.

I'm old enough to have seen the original Star Trek series when it was first run. And the album with "Lucy in the Sky". Even then I wondered if Shatner was brilliant or clueless.

Years later, he did the wonderful "GET A LIFE!" skit on SNL. I began to think he was in on the joke.

Then came Boston Legal. Denny Crane was so incredibly good that I could not decide if Shatner was one of the most talented actors of all time, or simply being himself.

Now this. I'm convinced of Shatner's brilliance. He, Conan and whoever came up with the idea should get Emmys for that bit.

That was her farewell address?

I thought she was reciting The Jabberwocky.

Did anyone notice that Shatner almost cracked up several times? Great stuff! I can't believe anyone expects us to take Ms. Palin seriously. As a source of comedy, however, she's unmatched.

I love love love William Shatner. He manages to:

poke fun while appearing serious;

never crack up laughing, only letting a little merriment escape his eyes;

dress cool for an old guy; and,

leave the stage when his job is done.

He is the best. Live long and .... you know.

by "political theatre." Brilliant.

Yes, this is a pretty dramatic reading...

Who else but Shatner could make Palin's mush-mouth word-salad sound lyrical? Love that man! Funny stuff . . . .

As for Palin -- why would anyone want her to go away?? She's great. She needs to be the Republican candidate for president in 2012! She's the country's best hope to continue the polarization and ultimate fragmentation, withering and destruction of that party. WE NEED HER!

I have a new exclamation of dramatic surprise. From now on, when confronted by something shocking, it's "Merciless Rivers!" that will be escaping my lips.

Well, it certainly makes a fr, far better poem than political speech. But I gotta say, I'm pretty amazed that Ms "Drill Baby Drill" would go on for so long about the wonders of the Alaska landspace when her lauded energy plan is to dig it the hell up and extract every dollar from it possible.

He rescues Palin's words from their awkward dark

John McCain should have ran with Shatner as the VP candidate.

...together with hackneyed rightwing talking points -- she's the nearly compleat conservative demogogue.

All she needs is the ability to speak fluidly. And to stop rambling.

Or for the MSM to leave her her alone? When she's still fodder for this sort of stuff? The bottom line is that it's fun to make fun of her, and she invites this level of ridicule very time she opens her mouth. She's the greatest leader since The Holy Grail's Brave Sir Robin!

That paragraph of her speech was clearly intended to be poetic--whatever one's opinion of its literary merit--so Shatner didn't exactly score a satiric coup by reading it as such.

Sure, it may have been intended to be poetic, but it didn't become poetic until Shatner read it. Palin could screw up a reading of The Hollow Men, even though it's about her.

Palin-speak actually works better in this format where it can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean (somewhat like abstract art) than it does as a substantive political speech.

Death, Taxes, and Shatner

well done guys.

that she is quitting her job running the state and is going to the sinful lower 48 to help Alaska.

got it.

I'd just love to read her oh-so-offended comments in next months column.

That paragraph of her speech was clearly intended to be poetic--whatever one's opinion of its literary merit--so Shatner didn't exactly score a satiric coup by reading it as such.

The beatnik bongo accompaniment was perfect.

If Palin had the kind of voice and delivery Shatner has, I might be able to stand to listen to her, and she might have even greater (but still underdeserved) appeal.

Instead, she's got a voice that goes through my head like a knife combined with a non-stop blathering yammer, as if she's afraid that pausing will cause someone to take away her mic.

A word to the wise - a competent speaker can make even nonsense sound plausible. Let's hope she doesn't get a good coach.

...but even William Shatner couldn't make sense of it.

Conan and Shatner are on to something. That speech definitely sounds better as a poem than something comprised of full length sentences. I can see that being done at a coffeehouse gig. I look forward to more entertainment poetry from Sarah Palin.

Hell, dheitman, I'm willing to compare it to the Gettysburg address right now. Wait a sec. Okay, done.

You were uttering satire, right?

performance art.

Herein lies the art, the result of shatnerization in order to translate and memefy the text, and the encryption of the art in a speech of puzzling and double-talk comic speech techniques By Governor Palin of which Kevin Nealon is a known to be proficient at.

I smell a setup and a rejoinder coupled with professional comedic fingerprints all over this.

This must be the work of the Justified Ancients of Mummu.

We are all in a hell of a fix.

Wait till you play the speech backwards!!!

Sarah Palin's Farewell Address will one day be compared to the Gettysburg Address.

Priceless.

Next to the troops. Every breath we take, every crap we take, every dollar we make, every word we spake has been granted to us by them.

Is Sarah Palin really worth this level of nonstop coverage?

Brittany Spears during her head shaving days...

That's pretty funny. It does sound better read as a poem, though, but maybe because I never really expect to understand poetry.