14 DAY TRIAL // William Shatner is famous for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk on the televised series “Star Trek” but, just the other night, he also made international headlines for a series of rude, offensive hand gestures he did as a guest on Conan O’Brien’s The Tonight Show. CNN describes Shatner’s behavior as a “bit off” (see the video below), but, the truth of the matter is, all this controversy has helped host O’Brien a lot in terms of ratings.
It is not yet known whether Shatner flipping the bird at the host was scripted or had even been run by producers and the host, or whether indeed the actor had an off night. What is known instead is that not only did the 78-year-old star flip off Conan, which prompted him to jump from his chair in exasperation, but he also mimed other potentially offensive gestures, while accompanying them by a story to match.
“The interview was reduced to a farce when he stuck up his middle finger at O’Brien. Evidently, the former Start Trek star couldn’t do the ‘live long and prosper’ gesture so O’Brien teased Shatner, who reasoned that Leonard Nimoy’s Spock and not his character Captain James T. Kirk is famous for the signal. Still, O’Brien mocked Shatner’s inability to the Vulcan hand gesture, driving Shatner to flip the bird at O’Brien. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ O’Brien told Shatner after he used his hands to speak volumes.” BuddyTV writes of the incident.
Shatner was on Conan’s show to talk about his upcoming book, “Up Till Now: The Autobiography,” and the comics “William Shatner Presents: The Tek War Chronicles,” out on June 24. As noted above, the actor seemingly lost his temper when he was asked to do the Vulcan sign and it became clear that he couldn’t – although O’Brien definitely did not have a problem about doing it without using his other hand to help him.
Earlier that night, during the same interview, Shatner shocked the audience and O’Brien again when he started talking about the one time he went camping with a friend. As he progressed with his story, which involved him in the woods doing number two and a train that had stationed nearby and a woman staring at him from behind drawn blinds, the actor did yet another gesture that got O’Brien to react in shock and turn his back to his guest.
See below for the part where William Shatner flips Conan O’Brien off and judge for yourselves whether this was scripted or just “off behavior.”