Scott D. Pierce: Utah Gov. Herbert serves up a cameo in latest 'Sharknado'

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What do Carrot Top, the Chippendales dancers, Gilbert Gottfried, David Hasselhoff, Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil, Gary Busey and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert all have in common?

They're all in "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens."

Really.

The latest movie in the extraordinarily dumb series is — you guessed it! — extraordinarily dumb.

As has been the case in the previous three "Sharknados," the plot is incomprehensible and pretty much irrelevant. The entertainment value (such as it is) involves the sheer stupidity of the events, the cheesy special effects, and watching various people die horrific/humorous deaths.

It's not just sharks this time. There are a bouldernado, an oilnado, a firenado, a lightningnado, a lavanado, a hailnado and a cownado.

"The 4th Awakens" (Sunday, 9 p.m., Syfy) picks up five years after the events of "Sharknado 3," and we're told that — due to advanced technology — there hasn't been a single shark-infested tornado in that time.

That, of course, changes as "The 4th Awakens" begins. And Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) is back to battle storms that hit Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Seattle, Texas, Kansas, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, Niagara Falls — and Salt Lake City.

Midway through the movie, we see a storm sweeping across Salt Lake City. Cut to an exterior of the Utah Capitol, then to the governor's office, and we hear Herbert say, "We need to put the city on lockdown immediately. Contact the National Guard. Get ahold of General Burton. If the sharknado heads this way, it's going to go right through the downtown heart of Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake Comic Con."

Then we see the March Fan-X in the role of Comic Con, which offers a bunch of locals the chance to be really bad actors as they react to sharks crashing through the windows of the Salt Palace.

This would make more sense if it were a brine-shrimpnado, but that wouldn't be particularly scary. Just icky.

Salt Lake Comic Con founder Dan Farr gets to stand awkwardly and have his head bitten off.

Then there's the memorable moment when Herbert bats sharks away with a tennis racket.

It's terrible. It's ridiculous. It's completely in keeping with the rest of the movie.

Herbert is no actor, but he seems believable as the governor of Utah. More believable than a lot of the other actors (and nonactors) in "The 4th Awakens."

I'd say more believable than in real life, but that would be mean.

Herbert had some fun with it. Good for him. Politicians tend to take themselves too seriously.

Should Herbert's Democratic opponent, Mike Weinholtz, demand equal time from Syfy?

Nah. But maybe he should use clips of Herbert in "Sharknado" to campaign against him.

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.