His first appearance in 40 years. Total length: 96 minutes. I didn’t watch but Twitter was aflame with rolling updates about his intro as the “king of kings,” his musings about jetlag and why the UN should be moved to Beijing, and, oh yes, his hope that The One shall remain president forevermore. And that’s just for starters: I’m giving you two clips, one of CNN covering the kookier lowlights and another of a lowlight they forgot to mention — his pensees about the JFK and MLK assassinations. I can’t tell if the interpreter is (mostly) unintelligible because he simply doesn’t speak English well or because Qaddafi is that incoherent, but the garbled syntax only adds to the whole vibe.

And now I’m going to make a painful confession. As loathsome as he is, I couldn’t help feeling a tiny — tiny — bit of sympathy at watching someone who quite clearly lacks the mental capacity to realize he’s making a spectacle of himself. Ever seen a homeless guy ranting at no one in particular, and quite convinced that he’s winning the “argument”? Dude. Exit question: First Joe Wilson, now Qaddafi. How many “important” Obama speeches are going to be overshadowed by a bizarre outburst?