One of the more surreal things I've heard recently was Mickey Dolenz (yes, of The Monkees) on local Houston talk radio (950 AM KPRC) explaining why scientists wanted to build the Superconducting Supercollider...
He was in town to star as the bad guy in a Houston production of the rock-opera version of "Aida", and was hitting the talk radio circuit as PR. During the interview he mentioned that he hated the idea of being a "celebrity", which he defined as "someone famous for being famous", and he'd rather get jobs or invitations based on his actual abilities, like music, acting, or his interest in quantum physics. So later in the show someone asked him a physics question about what the SSC would have been for. He gave a great and coherent answer, but it was just bizarre to hear one of the Monkees expounding on theoretical physics. That's about the last thing I expected when I turned on the radio that day.
And to think that people say he monkeys around.