Flavorwire

There’s a healthy tradition of celebrities doing dramatic readings of pop songs — see Jude Law and Christopher Walken’s rival renditions of “Poker Face,” James Earl Jones covering “Baby,” and William Shatner’s version of “Umbrella” — and those are all well and good, but there’s a slightly different trend we’ve been loving: the dramatic reading of the instructional, declamatory or fictional text. After all, from figuring out how to change a tire to parsing political speeches, everything sounds better when declaimed in Seriou Actor Voice. Click through to see a few of our favorites, and let us know if we’ve missed any of yours in the comments!

Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes end user license agreement:

John Lithgow reads Newt Gingrich’s press release:

Sir Ian McKellen reads instructions for changing a flat tire:

Michael Sheen reads Twilight fan fiction:

William Shatner reads Sarah Palin’s resignation speech:

Will Arnett reads Judy Blume’s Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret: