The Greatest Moment In Pop Culture History: William Shatner Covering Elton John’s “Rocket Man”

After much deliberation through many studies, countless sleepless nights, and endless arguing with colleagues (i.e. my cats), I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that William Shatner’s cover of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” is the single greatest moment in pop culture history.

The incredible event went down on January 14, 1978 at the 5th Saturn Awards (broadcast as The Science Fiction Awards on January 21, 1978), which the Star Trek star co-hosted with actress Karen Black. At one point during the awards ceremony (in which STAR WARS unsurprisingly swept), famous lyricist Bernie Taupin, best known for his songwriting collaborations with Elton John; came on stage to introduce the very special number.

 

The sunglasses-wearing, white-gloved, tuxedoed Taupin addressed the audience: 

 

“In 1972, when Elton John and I wrote ‘Rocket Man,’ it became very popular among the listeners. Due to the interest in the meaning of the song, now in 1978 at the Science Fiction Film Awards, I’m trying proud to once again present my ‘Rocket Man,’ as interpreted by our host, William Shatner. Thank you.’

 

As dripping with gravitas as that intro was, it did little to truly prepare the crowd for the intense interpretation they were about to experience. Watch the clip:

 

Chills, huh? The concept is very clear: a man pondering his existence in the early evening over a cigarette is encountered by his other selves, from as the night drunkenly progresses. When one Shatner (in a big close-up projection) statically states, ‘Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids,’ to which the original early evening Bill responds, ‘in fact, it’s cold as hell,’ it hits you right in the feels.

 

Then the song climaxes with the drunkest, most late night vision of Shatner, tie-undone, slurring supremely, and dancing in a fists-clenched manner that strongly resembles Donald Trump’s dance moves, appearing to take the tune home. 

 

The over-whelmingly power performance concludes with each of the three Shatners (maybe this concept was inspired by there being multiple Star Trek episodes with Captain Kirk doubles?) reciting the song’s dramatic last line ‘And I think it's gonna be a long, long time,’ separately, then together until they merge as one.

 

When watching this amazing video, I can’t believe how the audience was able to keep from laughing (I think you can hear some gasps though) because this shit is hilarious AF. In the pre-YouTube era, or pre-internet era in general, this was a very rare video that one might hear talk of, but not actually see.

 

I remember seeing the late, great SNL legend Phil Hartman bring it up on a late night talk show sometime in the late ‘80s-early ‘90s, saying there was a videotape of it being passed around through his comedy buddies, but it didn’t gain real notoriety until another comedy legend (that thankfully is still with us) Chris Elliot parodied Shatner’s spoken word spectacle on an episode of Late Night with David Letterman on June 12, 1992:

 

Since then it’s also been targeted by Beck (from the 1997 video for “Where it’s At”):

And Family Guy (“And the Wiener is...” S3E5, broadcast on August 8, 2001:

What’s funny about these takes is that none of them really satirizes what Shatner did in his immaculate presentation of the iconic pop classic, they just do what he did as it can’t *be* parodied, only imitated. 

 

It’s also funny that Shatner has re-framed the performance, claiming it wasn’t meant to be seen by anyone but the audience at the Saturn Awards show (although it was broadcast less than a week after its taping on network TV, and that he meant it as a joke.

 

“I thought how funny, amusing, interesting – all those words - it would be if I did Frank Sinatra doing that song,” Shatner reflected in a 2019 interview. “He loosened the collar, he puffed out a cigarette, and then what I thought, ‘Well, if I try to do anything different, it’s [in monotone] ‘Rocket man,’ that’s Captain Kirk, and then there’s ‘Rock it, man!’ like a rock ‘n roll guy, I thought that was another interpretation, and then there was a third interpretation, three ways, three layers that I could do it. I was trying to be amusing in front of a 100 people.”

In a 2022 interview with Chris Wallace on CNN, Shatner is again confronted with the clip, and again re-inforces his view that he was “just kidding around, I didn’t know they were recording it,” even going on to say “I’m front of an audience, I’m doing this thing; we’re all laughing, we’re all having fun,” when the clip contains no laughter from said audience. That’s one of the things that makes it so funny now, is how seriously it’s taken.

 

Not my finest moment,” he confessed to Wallace. “But I re-recorded it on another album the way I thought it should go.” What Shatner is referring to having released a new version of the song for his album Seeking Major Tom in 2011. 

 

Also, this new version of “Rocket Man” was released on a limited edition seven inch single in 2022 with this nifty picture sleeve:

Since Shatner actually became a rocket man in real life, via a brief trip into space on a capsule piloted by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin in 2021, his cover has much more resonance, which makes it even funnier.

If this post is your first time seeing the greatest moment in pop culture history, I think it's gonna be a long, long time before you ever forget it. 

Just as Shatner recites whispering with incredible drama: “A long...long...time.”

More later...

TED: For Seth MacFarlane Fans Only

TED (Dir. Seth MacFarlane, 2012)



“I don’t sound that much like Peter Griffin!” protests the profane protagonist of Seth MacFarlane’s first full-length feature film, but obviously that’s a hollow claim.

MacFarlane, of course, voices Ted, the teddy bear that magically comes alive to a little boy that grows up to be Bostonian man-child played by Mark Wahlberg, and, yes, he sounds exactly like his famous Family Guy character.

That does a lot to call out what this movie essentially is: a collection of gags that were too R-rated for basic cable, decorating a flimsy plot.

It’s a plot everyone should recognize from many movies and sitcoms - a man-child’s girlfriend, in this case played by Mila Kunis, begs her beau to grow up, but he’s too attached to a lifestyle of juvenile high jinks, in this case embodied in a stuffed plush talking toy.

Come to think of it, it was a scenario even used in last year’s THE MUPPETS, with Jason Segel asking himself the musical question is he a “Man or a Muppet,” after being left by Amy Adams.

But at least in that film it was just a silly subplot, and not the full narrative as it is here. An attempt to create conflict between Wahlberg and Kunis by having Joel McHale (Community, Talk Soup) as Kunis’ slimy corporate boss constantly come on to her, doesn’t raise any stakes because of how her character is set up we never believe she would go for him over Wahlberg.

But back to the talking Teddy Bear part, I mean it’s his movie, right? Ted is an aimless comedy archetype – a hard drinking, drugging, foul-mouthed party animal just like last year’s PAUL (which was stupid, sure, but much funnier than this).

With the sheer volume of jokes, one-liners, and pop culture pot-shots, there can’t help but be some humorous moments, but TED gets tiresome really quickly (two 9/11 jokes, really?). The CGI used to animate the bear is flawless, but to what avail with this lazy material?

That is, I suppose, unless you’re a die-hard Family Guy fan, or a big American Dad fan, or even just a casual The Cleveland Show fan (I'm none of those things), and you’re way into folks making fun of crappy movies, celebrities, and music mostly from the ‘80s.

For some reason there’s a lot of focus on the infamous 1980 sci-fi flop FLASH GORDON (it’s the movie Ted and Wahlberg watch the most while getting high, you see), including a lengthy cameo by Flash Gordon himself, Sam Jones in a wildly typical party sequence.

At the screening I went to, plenty of people laughed, but how many folks in the audience really knew that 32-year old film? Sure, it’s got a classically kitschy theme song by Queen and it may qualify for the so bad it’s good factor (like Wahlberg says at one point), but is it really worthy of this kind of satiric attention?

MacFarlane takes what feels and looks like a warmed-over Farrelly brothers project, and interjects it with his distinctive smarmy tone. However there is little a bit of a heart within purely because of Kunis’ invested performance. But next time she does a movie like this, she really ought not to waste so much energy.

Oh yeah, there’s also the third act action climax involving a creepy Giovanni Ribisi kidnapping Ted for his rotund son (Aedin Mincks), but, hey, it’s an ending consistent with the uninspired rest of the film.

The not terrible but tedious TED is really a film for MacFarlane fans only, but even they might want to wait to get the inevitable unrated DVD or Blu ray, because I bet it and all the bloopers, gag reels, and outtakes will be much funnier on the small screen.

And as cheap as the humor is in TED, people should really get their money’s worth.

More later...

The Evolution Of Michael Moore

“…oh and remember let’s defeat the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them here.” - Michael Moore (SiCKO, 2007) So Michael Moore’s latest event movement movie-doc is opening Friday at my local hometown theater The Varsity but like many folk here on the internets I watched a copy online. I'll still see it at my theater and urge everyone I know to do so 'cause as my review below sez it's a keeper. Since Moore and me have had our ups and downs through the years I thought It would be cool to look back over his movies (this is film babble blog so I'm not going to discuss his books or TV programs) and break them down a bit. A formula of sorts emerges when we look at the basic ingredients in a Moore movie - first though we must look at one of his principle inspirations. In April of 1986 shortly after General Electric bought NBC, David Letterman - the top-rated late night talk show host at the time - on his old 12:30 broadcast Late Night With David Letterman did a camera remote film piece in which he took a fruit basket as a welcoming gift to GE's corporate headquarters in New York. Letterman kept a good game-face as he was told to leave and his director scolded to turn off his camera. This bit which should be regarded as a TV classic (I'll settle for the "memorable moment" status that Wikipedia has granted it) is the template for Michael Moore's entire schtick. You can see the bit here. Moore took that bit and ran with it as far as his fat ass can take him. Moore even acknowledged it as a huge influence on The Late Show With David Letterman when promoting FAHRENHEIT 9/11 in 2004. You've got to have more than invading corporation lobbies and harrasing the staff that to make a full fledged documentary so let's look at : 5 MICHAEL MOORE MOVIE METHODS Yep, one can't imagine Moore's films without these tried and true stylistic devices - 1. Idyllic 50’s stock footage - In the first third of all of Moore's films we see archival footage depicting a supposedly simpler time. Public service films, shots from grainy newsreels, bits of TV commercials, clips from forgotten drive-in fodder, sometimes even Moore's own childhood home movies are presented to put us in a Leave It To Beaver-Father Knows Best mindset before showing us a series of modern atrocities. This definitely shows the influence of Moore's mentor and cinematographer Kevin Rafferty *. Rafferty's own documentary made of likewise footage - THE ATOMIC CAFE (1982) is another huge piece of the Moore movie puzzle. * Incidentally Rafferty is a first cousin of President George W. Bush. Thanks again Wikipedia! 2. Baby Boomer Era Hit Songs - The precedent was set in ROGER & ME when auto worker Ben Hamper talks about the groove (yes, groove) he had trouble working up listening to The Beach Boys's "Wouldn't It Be Nice" on his car stereo after telling his employers he couldn't take it anymore. The song plays as shots of boarded-up houses, abandoned storefronts, and a TV report about the rat population escalating after the factory closing in Flint, Michigan rolls by. That groove resurges in the well known songs by the Animals whose "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" - in FAHRENHEIT 9/11 serenades the sequence of planes taking off to drive home the point about the Bin Laden family being given the privilege to fly in the days after 9/11, Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" played at the end of the same film, The Beatles "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" made an obvious point in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, and most aptly Cat Stevens' "Don't Be Shy" is used to great effect in SiCKO. 3. A Megaphone - In SiCKO we see Moore in a boat in Guantanamo Bay with a group of 9/11 rescue workers after learning that terrorist detainees are getting top notch medical treatment. With trusty megaphone in hand Moore yells "we just want some medical attention - the same kind the evil doers are getting!" This should be no surprise to Moore movie-goers because he employs the same tactic in almost every movie. This also can be traced back to Letterman - he disrupted a taping of The Today Show from a window above Rockefeller plaza with a megaphone. Of course Dave's agenda wasn't political - "this prime-time program was my idea and I'm not wearing any pants!" 4. Stern Evil Unemotional Old White Men - Of course General Motors President and inspiration for Moore's first film - Roger Smith is the archetype but throughout his canon we have more old money villains who apparently rule the world than we know what to do with. His book Stupid White Men confirms this premise. It's as if the Cancer Man (sorry Cigarette Smoking Man) and his elite friends from the X-Files have truly an identity and source of blame that we can finger. 'As if' indeed. 5. Bringing It All Back Home To Flint, Michigan - Moore's hometown has a pivotal place in all of his films (oddly not SiCKO - this is the only method on this list that isn't used) even the wide-ranging Global kaliedoscope that is FAHRENHEIT 9/11 has the story of Lila Lipscomb a Flint resident and proud flag waver whose son Michael was killed in Iraq. I would make some lame pun about Flint 'sparking' the whole Moore-apolaza but I digress... Now let's look at the movies themselves : THE BLUEPRINT – ROGER AND ME (1989) - "My mission was a simple one. To convince Roger Smith to spend a day with me in Flint and to meet some of the people who were losing their jobs." So it was, a young aspiring documentary film maker centers on the legacy of his hometown. The devastation that occurred after major auto factories laid off thousands of workers then later closed down. The evictions and fat-cat revisionisms that plagued normal workingman's schedules and laid bare the prospect of America at its outsourced greediest. It's all here in this grainy wet behind the ears debut. Though it has been noted that while Moore documented his struggle to get behind closed doors to interview General Motors President Roger Smith - he did actually talk to him before the film was made - in a question-and-answer exchange during a May 1987 GM shareholders meeting (seen in the doc MANUFACTURING CONSENT). The backlash was just beginning. THE MISFIRE – CANADIAN BACON (1995) "Canadians are always dreaming up a lotta ways to ruin our lives. The metric system, for the love of God! Celsius! Neil Young!" - Gus (Brad Sullivan) After the success of ROGER & ME it's understandable that Moore would want to try his hand at making a fictional funny film. He had a great premise - an unpopular US President played by Alan Alda tries to get a polling statistic bump and votes by starting a fake war with Canada. Years ahead of WAG THE DOG and with a great cast including John Candy (his last film by the way), Rip Torn, Kevin Pollack, Rhea Perlman and Steven Wright how could you go wrong? Well, it went really wrong and became a slapsticky forgettable mess. The unfunniest of Moore's films despite a few random laughs CANADIAN BACON now stands as an oddity in his career. Thankfully he went back to non-fiction and wiped his hands clean of this mess. THE P.R. PIECE – THE BIG ONE (1997) Moore, not yet a household name but finding himself with a best selling book Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American he decided to film his publicity tour across America. Pretty fluffy but still has some sharp segments - especially a meeting with Nike CEO Phil Knight (the only such corporate head that would meet Moore on his tour) is an essential bit that can not be easily dismissed. When Moore asks why his companies shoes are made abroad and not here - '' But what about Indonesia's genocidal practices against minority groups?" Knight uncomfortably responds "How many people died in the Cultural Revolution?'' An incendiary moment in an otherwise glorified infomercial. THE RELOADING: BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002) This re-established film going folk to the Moore method. Few film makers would attempt a pop doc about gun control but Moore brought such sweaty passion to the subject that it could not be ignored. Sure it maybe plays around with facts (Moore had arranged the "free gun when you open a bank account" transaction weeks in advance, and that customers have "a week to 10 days waiting period") and the showdown with a senile but still grand Charlton Heston was misguided and more embarrassing than point making but overall BOWLING deserved the Oscar it won for best documentary. Visiting With Timothy McVeigh's brother James Nichols and hearing out his militia views, Moore asks: "Why not use Gandhi's way? He didn't have any guns and he best the British Empire." Nichols blankly replies: "I'm not familiar with that." Right there - that's America caught on film. With just a few allusions to 9/11 and the administration's ties to the Saudi family the gun-site was almost completely in line: THE GUNSHOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD: FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004) Moore's controversial (can't write a piece on Moore without using the word "controversial") Oscar speech really set the bar high for this one. Beginning with the grossly mishandled 2000 election and dogging President George W. Bush's every stupid move, Moore's movie won him a lot of movie fans and he became a world wide celebrity but at the same time he became a divisive personality. FAHRENHEIT 9/11 has aged a bit badly - it creaks with sloppiness at times - understandably it was rushed into production to have an impact on the election in 2004 -and some of its conclusions are speculative at best but the bottom line as stated in the Oscar speech referred to above "we live in fictitious times, with a fictitious president who was elected with fictitious election results and we’re fighting a war for fictitious reasons” is pretty damn effectively played out. And now, the new one : SiCKO (2007) The most focused and funniest of Moore's films by far. SiCKO has little by way of manipulative editing or Moore's particular brand of muckraking - it just simply presents people and their stories - for the most part. Sure, most people will be cynical about the objectivity here - which in a way is the point - but the basic facts about Canadian, then French, then most surprisingly Cuban healthcare is enough to make even a Moore hater raise their eyebrows. The irrefutable facts like - "And the United States slipped to 37 in health care around the world, just slightly ahead of Slovenia" and the testimony of Dr. Linda Peeno, a former medical reviewer for the health insurer Humana in which she admited :"I denied a man a necessary operation" are just a few of the examples that brought tears to my eyes. Yes, there are liberties taken and many will label this as propaganda (but what documentary isn't?) most likely dealing with the close to the ending bit where Moore sends a 12,000 dollar check to one of his most out-spoken critics Jim Kenefick (Moorewatch.com) whose wife was sick and his web site needed funding or had to shut down. SiCKO may be Moore's best film - don't let biased naysayers tell you otherwise. Moore In Other's Mediums : As a celebrity - a household name, a well-known entity, a figurehead, and most aptly a target Michael Moore has really arrived. A few examples : TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE (Dir. Trey Parker, 2004) Apparently them there South Park guys thought their appearance in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE was mishandled and the cartoon in said film was too much in the style of South Park (Parker - “We have a very specific beef with Michael Moore. I did an interview, and he didn’t mischaracterize me or anything I said in the movie. But what he did do was put this cartoon right after me that made it look like we did that cartoon”), so yeah Moore had this coming - he appears as a hot dog eating jerk who straps explosives to his body to blow up the heroes of the film's title - as reported on MSNBC - The puppet was reportedly stuffed with ham when it blew. Family Guy (1999-when the show is no longer profitable) Now I'm Pro-Simpsons Anti-Family Guy but this bit should be noted even if it is a bad fart joke - "like that time I outfarted Michael Moore" Peter Griffin (voice of Seth MacFarlane) recounts then we see him and Moore in a Men's room enter parallel-walled toilets. Then the farting begins. Actually maybe this shouldn't be noted. Oh well. Email Film Babble! - boopbloop7@gmail.com Moore later... No! I meant : More later...