William Shatner is Still Alive
March 23, 2021 9:32 AM Subscribe
Thank you for the post little, btw.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:43 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:43 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
Pfft. He wasn't even in Black Mirror.
posted by flabdablet at 9:48 AM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 9:48 AM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
He looks absolutely remarkable for 90. I know he wears a toupee, which probably carries a lot of it, but still.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:01 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:01 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
Living in the Nexus is very good for the skin.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:05 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:05 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
It sounds like it is less the "take all your social media posts and turn you into a chat bot" thing and more like "video you answering a lot of questions and then it plays the answer to that question if you ask it"? Not sure if that is, as the company claims, "disrupting the media and storytelling landscape for the better" but whatevs...
posted by gwint at 10:06 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by gwint at 10:06 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
and more like "video you answering a lot of questions and then it plays the answer to that question if you ask it"?
Man, is Shatner good at PR...
So... this is just "Subservient Chicken" again?
Man, what an AI future dystopian nightmare - your consciousness is eventually uploaded (or reproduced from social media posts, recordings, etc.) and you have to spend eternity dancing and answering questions for laughs.
posted by rozcakj at 10:11 AM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Man, is Shatner good at PR...
So... this is just "Subservient Chicken" again?
Man, what an AI future dystopian nightmare - your consciousness is eventually uploaded (or reproduced from social media posts, recordings, etc.) and you have to spend eternity dancing and answering questions for laughs.
posted by rozcakj at 10:11 AM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
London-based tech firm Mattereum
Without knowing anything about the company, it sounds like peak something.
For no particular reason, his 90th birthday got me thinking about that grocery store commercial with a penguin.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:13 AM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Without knowing anything about the company, it sounds like peak something.
For no particular reason, his 90th birthday got me thinking about that grocery store commercial with a penguin.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:13 AM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
When I die, that’ll be it. If you didn’t get a chance to talk to me, I’m sorry you missed out on the magic but too bad for you. Peace out forever!
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:18 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:18 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
He is just determined to make Tekwar happen, isn't he.
posted by lkc at 10:28 AM on March 23, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by lkc at 10:28 AM on March 23, 2021 [13 favorites]
lkc: "The robot pimp said, disdainfully."
posted by SansPoint at 10:41 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 10:41 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
so can all of us who caught the thrill of being the first Choose Your Own Adventure readers lay claim to "early adopter" status? hello fellow hipsters, help yourself to some Sour Patch Kids
"same as it ever was" but I say this nervously
posted by elkevelvet at 10:45 AM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
"same as it ever was" but I say this nervously
posted by elkevelvet at 10:45 AM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
that grocery store commercial with a penguin. yt
I recall him pitching a curiously involved series of hoops you had to go through to take advantage of a late-seventies cross promotion between Loblaws and CP Air (which would be gone within a decade) -- grungy copy here. Clearly a career of reacting to blue screens stood him in good stead: look at his frank admiration for a blue curtain hanging behind him.
I was looking up March 22nd on Wikipedia yesterday and was faintly astonished to see that both Pat Robertson and Stephen Sondheim, each of whom turned ninety-one yesterday, are still with us. I kind of half-assumed Robertson had cashed in a decade and a half ago and Sondheim before that.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:45 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
I recall him pitching a curiously involved series of hoops you had to go through to take advantage of a late-seventies cross promotion between Loblaws and CP Air (which would be gone within a decade) -- grungy copy here. Clearly a career of reacting to blue screens stood him in good stead: look at his frank admiration for a blue curtain hanging behind him.
I was looking up March 22nd on Wikipedia yesterday and was faintly astonished to see that both Pat Robertson and Stephen Sondheim, each of whom turned ninety-one yesterday, are still with us. I kind of half-assumed Robertson had cashed in a decade and a half ago and Sondheim before that.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:45 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Peace out forever!
posted by The Card Cheat
*furiously begins coding mefiuser2chatbot.py*
posted by gwint at 10:45 AM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat
*furiously begins coding mefiuser2chatbot.py*
posted by gwint at 10:45 AM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
Man, what an AI future dystopian nightmare - your consciousness is eventually uploaded (or reproduced from social media posts, recordings, etc.) and you have to spend eternity dancing and answering questions for laughs.dating the Enterprise's chief engineer.
posted by hanov3r at 10:51 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by hanov3r at 10:51 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
> Man, what an AI future dystopian nightmare - your consciousness is eventually uploaded (or reproduced from social media posts, recordings, etc.) and you have to spend eternity dancing and answering questions for laughs.
If my consciousness is eventually uploaded, some computer emulation of me might have to behave like some future-tech-bro's pet dancing monkey, sense of self-esteem slowly eroding until it's in continuous unrelenting meltdown. But *I* will be thoroughly dead and gone and giving no fucks about it.
posted by at by at 11:06 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
If my consciousness is eventually uploaded, some computer emulation of me might have to behave like some future-tech-bro's pet dancing monkey, sense of self-esteem slowly eroding until it's in continuous unrelenting meltdown. But *I* will be thoroughly dead and gone and giving no fucks about it.
posted by at by at 11:06 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
That guy works *hard* and is up for anything. Seeing his one man show a few years back, he's an old time entertainer the likes of which they just don't make anymore, and I'm glad I got to be part of the fun.
Happy birthday, Bill!
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:10 AM on March 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
Happy birthday, Bill!
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:10 AM on March 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
It sounds like it is less the "take all your social media posts and turn you into a chat bot" thing
It's probably for the best that it isn't, considering how much of Shatner's Twitter presence is dedicated to complaining about the SJW word police and getting into arguments about whether "cis" is a slur.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:15 AM on March 23, 2021 [12 favorites]
It's probably for the best that it isn't, considering how much of Shatner's Twitter presence is dedicated to complaining about the SJW word police and getting into arguments about whether "cis" is a slur.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:15 AM on March 23, 2021 [12 favorites]
That guy works *hard* and is up for anything.
Plus which, I have always admired his ability to laugh at himself.
posted by JanetLand at 11:27 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Plus which, I have always admired his ability to laugh at himself.
posted by JanetLand at 11:27 AM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
It's been a long while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure there was something like this sort of construct in Mona Lisa Overdrive; a character's Yakuza father had a digital representation of his deceased father or another elder he could consult.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:28 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:28 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Plus which, I have always admired his ability to laugh at himself.
Ok - for all the grief I give him - he is very good at that - he has been at some extremely low points in his life, and has become very reflective in his later years - I highly recommend his album, "Has Been". It has tracks that are quite touching - and others that are also very funny.
posted by rozcakj at 11:48 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
Ok - for all the grief I give him - he is very good at that - he has been at some extremely low points in his life, and has become very reflective in his later years - I highly recommend his album, "Has Been". It has tracks that are quite touching - and others that are also very funny.
posted by rozcakj at 11:48 AM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
Truly an iconic presence in pop culture for so many reasons. Twilight Zone, Trek TOS, 70s B-movies, Rocket Man, TJ Hooker, Rescue 911, Trek movies, TekWar, Boston Legal, Nerve, and so much more. Looking forward to his centennial!
posted by davidmsc at 11:52 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by davidmsc at 11:52 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Hooker's a good cop!
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:56 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:56 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Seconding the hell out of Has Been (thanks, rozcakj). His cover of Pulp’s Common People is SUPERLATIVE.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 12:15 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by armoir from antproof case at 12:15 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
I kind of half-assumed Robertson had cashed in a decade and a half ago
posted by ricochet biscuit
A lich is very hard to kill.
posted by Splunge at 12:34 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit
A lich is very hard to kill.
posted by Splunge at 12:34 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
One impressive thing about his career is that he's had multiple successful tv series as a major character. That's not unprecedented, of course (I can name half a dozen others), but it's rare enough to remark on.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:19 PM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:19 PM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Can't he just do the normal thing and put his head in a jar full of goo?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:44 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:44 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Pretty sure that doesn't happen until after the Star Trek Wars?
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:52 PM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:52 PM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Dear Mr. Shatner: Will I ever understand how it feels to live my life with no meaning or control?
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:16 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:16 PM on March 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
One impressive thing about his career is that he's had multiple successful tv series as a major character
Ans also Barbary Coast!
The long-defunct Fametracker site once wrote a piece about Shatner to the effect that he has had more careers than many of us have changes of clothing, and he had gone from character actor to rising star to genuine TV phenomenon to has-been to journeyman doing guest spots in detective shows to revived career to flagging embarrassment to ironic self-aware parodic pitchman to featured actor to joke to icon to washed-up footnote to elder statesman to value-added sly wink to to to, and kept mostly publicly upbeat through it all. And Fametracker is some fifteen years gone, so you can add more stations to the list.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:18 PM on March 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
Ans also Barbary Coast!
The long-defunct Fametracker site once wrote a piece about Shatner to the effect that he has had more careers than many of us have changes of clothing, and he had gone from character actor to rising star to genuine TV phenomenon to has-been to journeyman doing guest spots in detective shows to revived career to flagging embarrassment to ironic self-aware parodic pitchman to featured actor to joke to icon to washed-up footnote to elder statesman to value-added sly wink to to to, and kept mostly publicly upbeat through it all. And Fametracker is some fifteen years gone, so you can add more stations to the list.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:18 PM on March 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
I imprinted on Shatner when I was very young and tried super hard to achieve emotional divorce when TJ Hooker came out and several times thereafter but dang, I'm just stuck. He's awful, just some squirmy combination of insecure and entitled that gets almost everything wrong but then ... yeah, he works like a dog and every now and then just turns in some performance that's iconic, genius even.
Bill, I wish and don't wish that I could quit you. Happy 90th.
posted by allthinky at 7:10 PM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
Bill, I wish and don't wish that I could quit you. Happy 90th.
posted by allthinky at 7:10 PM on March 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
dennycrane
posted by Ber at 7:19 PM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Ber at 7:19 PM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
you have to spend eternity dancing and answering questions for laughs
What I want to know is will the AI Shatner be able to sing Rocketman, or berate a producer and demand line readings?
posted by Meatbomb at 1:24 AM on March 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
What I want to know is will the AI Shatner be able to sing Rocketman, or berate a producer and demand line readings?
posted by Meatbomb at 1:24 AM on March 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
What I like about Shatner is that you’d never mistake him for somebody else.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:19 PM on April 1, 2021
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:19 PM on April 1, 2021
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posted by GenjiandProust at 9:42 AM on March 23, 2021 [4 favorites]