Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner (2006)

A night of comedy where everyone sends you up for the long career you have had in whatever your field of entertainment is, i.e. take the Mick of you, first emerged in America, and then it went to Britain. This show, hosted by Jason Alexander, has the victim being Captain Kirk from Star Trek, star of T.J. Hooker and general actor, William Shatner. The comedians and stars roasting him in the show included Sandra Bullock, Andy Dick, Farrah Fawcett, Clint Howard as Balok, Jimmy Kimmel, Artie Lange, Leonard Nimoy (in the funny opening scenes), Kevin Pollak, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller, George Takei, Betty White and Fred Willard, and look out for David Carradine, Carrie Fisher, Jeri Ryan and Brent Spiner. It was nominated the Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. Very good!

I am a fan of TV shows and films such as South Park that are considered offensive and disgusting but this 'Roast' was just an excuse for swearing, vulgar sex jokes (if you can call them jokes) and smut.I watched this with high hopes, I am a huge William Shatner fan and for me this was just a kick in the teeth, there was absolutely no need for it, a roast is supposed to be funny, it's supposed to be friends of the roasted poking fun at them and there career not saying things such as "i caught the bouquet at Bill's wedding, I hope to catch the cock ring at sulu's' that was aimed at George Takei and was probably the tamest of the Roast (I don't want to put the worse ones on here). Sure there were the odd funny moments but way to few and far between. Waste of time if you ask me. Watch this only if your comedy preferences are of vulgar toilet humor that to me only a young immature teen would find at all funny.

This was one of the funniest roasts I've seen, even though it was obviously, as MovieAddict2006 commented, cut to hell and back. (But my cable company is showing the uncut version on pay-per-view, which I think would be a worthwhile indulgence.) It was clear that William Shatner ("the past-tense of 'Shitner" as one comic put it) was a big enough man to laugh at the comic jabs and oft-times full-out thrusts hurled in his direction. From his weight, to his hair-piece, to his acting/singing talents, nothing was deemed to sacred to mock, and he welcomed it all with humor and good nature.Also, George Takei seemed genuinely entertained at the jokes made at his expense, although many of them would appear to be the pinnancle of "gay-bashing" (at least to those without a sense of humor).Unfortunately, Farrah Fawcett's bit was like watching a train wreck having a bad-hair day in slooooow motion. Where, oh where was the stage hook when we needed it most? The only person I couldn't quite figure out was Andy Dick; his back- and on-stage antics made the news, but while he was taking a good a**-kicking from others (and others were taking a not-so-good face-licking from him), he was often seen shaking his head "No, no, no" and mouthing the words, "That's not true" (he even flipped someone the bird, at one point). The thing is, he seemed REALLY stoned and/or drunk, and I couldn't tell if it was all part of the scheme of things or if, in his substance-induced stupor, he was really insulted.No matter, it was great fodder for the taint-of-heart, and a welcome alternative to the regular Comedy Central programming.

I'm a huge Star Trek fan and a fan of Bill Shatner in particular. I think it's really impressive what he's done to re-inject life back into his career, winning Emmy awards for his performance in Boston Legal. Plus I love his self-effacing sense of humor. So when I heard there was going to be a "roast" in his honor, I eagerly looked forward to it.Man oh man was I disappointed. Actually disgusted would be a better word to describe this travesty of a show.It started out quite funny, with a phone conversation between Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, who tried to talk Bill out of appearing on the show because "they roast PIGS". The exchange was lively and fun, and as it turned out Nimoy was right (unintentionally) and Shatner's description of the show as bringing together comics that no one has ever heard of and "ex-hotties" was woefully accurate...The show was, in a word: vile.Among the "roasters" were Nichelle Nichols, Betty White (???), Farrah Fawcett and George Takei. It was hosted by Jason Alexander. There were also a number of comedians including Fred Willard, Kevin Pollock (who does the best Captain Kirk impression on the planet), and Andy Dick (who I loathe). Beyond that there were a bunch of no-names and it was a mystery to me why they were there, except that maybe Comedy Central wants to boost their careers.The short version is that I felt like I was sitting through some sort of sex education/anatomy class at it's most vulgar. I'd have to say 8 out of 10 jokes had something to do with genitalia or sex (mostly homosexual) and there was plenty of dialogue that had to be bleeped out. Much of the humor was based on George Takei's recent "outing" of himself as gay, and it was done in excruciating sexual detail.I'd also say that 90% of the "roasting" was directed at the co-roasters with a minor 10% directed at the guest of honor, Bill Shatner. It almost seemed like an afterthought. I didn't tune in to see a bunch of unknown comics insulting each other with private jokes! Also depressing was seeing the likes of Nichelle Nicholes and the venerable Betty White stooping to gross sexual humor in this venue. I was taken aback that they would stoop to that level to be what, considered "cool"? To be honest I couldn't even finish watching it.When I tuned in I had images in my head of roasts from way back when with the likes of Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Foster Brooks, etc. poking fun at some celebrity friend. Back then it was funny and had an edge to it, but they did it with some sense of class. Believe it or not, it is possible to roast someone and be funny without resorting to describing a prostate massage or other things I won't repeat here.As far as I'm concerned the humor reminded me of what you might overhear around a bunch of 14 year old boys. It's much more difficult but funnier when you get a laugh without resorting to vulgarity, in my opinion. I mean some of it made the audience (and myself) cringe more than laugh. Much of it was obviously done more for shock value than actual laughs.What I found especially interesting was that the LEAST amount of time was given to the guests who were the least vulgar. If you blinked you would have missed Kevin Pollock's very funny bit that was inserted almost as filler.