William Shatner Warns Of The Dangers Of Turkey Fryers
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (CBS) -- Thanksgiving is a mere eight days away, and State Farm insurance has recruited William Shatner to inject some humor into a serious warning about turkey fryers.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, Shatner appears in a 1-minute, 39-second video clip about fryer safety, in which he asks people to join his "Fryer's Club."
The dramatic retelling titled, "Eat, Fry, Love," is pure Shatner melodrama, tracing his triumphant purchase of a fryer to examining the parts such as the thermometer and the "dingle-dangle," and finally to an incident where he was blinded by hunger and "spat in the face of science" by frying the turkey without taking safety precautions.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports
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"Look at this! That is so stupid!" Shatner cries as computer generated flames rage on his patio – and his sleeve.
Ultimately, Shatner tells the fryer, "I loved you, but you only brought me pain, as he hurls it into the back of a garbage truck.
"Fire, metal, oil and turkey are glorious when in harmony," Shatner said. "But their power is unrelenting in careless hands."
In a separate, more serious video, Shatner says in real life, he has burned himself, and almost burned his house down, as a result of mishaps stemming from deep-frying turkeys.
The video goes on to list several safety tips, and shows how easily a fire can result from mistakes.
State Farm says if you fry a turkey you should do it outside, far from buildings and trees.
"A garage, or any kind of a building – a shed, or even a covered deck – they catch on fire really easily," Eddie Bain of the Illinois Fire Service says in the video, "and sometimes it's a tempting place to do this because the weather might be bad, or it might be raining a little bit, but it's an exceptionally dangerous place."
You should also avoid oil spills by first filling the pot with cold oil, and then, lower the thawed turkey into the pot to measure exactly how much oil you'll need.
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