Last night I hosted a BBQ and poker party at my house, but at 10 o'clock I had to turn on the William Shatner roast on Comedy Central. I love roasts to begin with, but what better target could you have than William Shatner? It was brilliant, as expected. The young comics - Jeffrey Ross, Patton Oswalt, Greg Geraldo - were all funny as usual, but the night belonged to Betty White (no, I'm not kidding), who was hysterical, and George Takei from Star Trek. Roasts are not for the faint of heart, the jokes are raunchy and definitely not politically correct, but those two went above and beyond. Still, the line of the night, as far as I'm concerned, came from Lisa Lampanelli:
Andy Dick is so gay that he thinks Margaret Cho is funny
I Literally shot iced tea out my nose at that one and had to throw out that deck of cards. When they replay this one, watch it.
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Who thinks who is funny?
I don't see that the whole show is available yet, but clips from the roast are popping up on YouTube already: Shatner Roast
It seems a bit pointless to roast someone like Shatner who is already such a self-parody. Admittedly the only roast I've ever seen is the one on Larry Sanders, but it seems to me that it would only have any bite if the subject was particularly self-conscious - if he had a self-image he/she wanted to maintain.
So did Shatner get in any good licks of his own?
Yeah it was good and Betty White killed.
Artie Lange wasn't too bad either. I wanted someone to kill Andy Dick after the third time he got up and went to lick someone.
Betty White was hilarious. One of my friends didn't enjoy it, but I think he was expecting all trek in-jokes, and not an actual roast. I have to say I missed Courtney Love in this one. It didn't make sense for her to be there, but it just doesn't feel like a Comedy Central roast without her.
Also: Andy Dick needs to go away. Anywhere but on camera. Please.
Shatner was actually great at the end and got in some great shots of his own. One of the guys playing poker, bless his heart, just was not ready for the kind of humor found in a roast. He was just horrified more and more with every joke, as the rest of us were cracking up laughing. It's not the kind of thing that appeals to everyone, but I love it.
Artie Lange was the worst one there (well, except for Farrah Fawcett who couldn't even get her lines out straight).
Farrah was pretty clueless, but overall it was hysterical. I liked Shatner's entrance especially.
Sheesh Kevin Pollack was worse that Artie Lange. That impression is so tired.
Not ready? I wasn't aware there were graduated levels of humor. Did he only have his humor brown belt?
You're right, "not ready" was a bad phrase to use. Bob will never be "ready" for that kind of humor, it's just not his thing.
Betty White just plain killed; her timing was bang-on. Best lines of the night were Takei's " . . . I think" and Lisa Lampinelli's "the grand prize was fire." YMMV.
I hope the showing I TiVoed later on was the un-bleeped one.
Glad to hear this was good. I've got it hot and ready on the TIVO at home. Looks like I'm in for a good show tonight. No one, and I mean, no one is as cool as The Shat. -- MDT