Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner (2006)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Touches You

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Former Shatner co-stars Leonard Nimoy and Heather Locklear showed good judgment in not appearing at this disaster. For that matter, so did Candace Bergen and James Spader. In my book, Betty White lost 20 points on the class scale for her contribution.It is sad and pathetic when most of the "roasters" on stage are people who never appeared, never worked with or never even met the "roastee" - in this case William Shatner.The obnoxious phrase "rip a new one" must have been used 40 times. The homosexual humor was endless.From "THE MAKING OF" segment on the DVD, it was clear that the producers set the ugly tone trying to push Betty White and others to be as crude as possible. Host Jason Alexander - who can be a talented actor and comedienne - was funny when his jokes were about Shatner and his work but as JA crossed the line so many times, he became increasingly pathetic.Worst of the bunch - Lisa Lampanelli - aka PIG IN A WIG.Shatner summed it up best at the end when he said how disappointed he was that the roasters weren't very funny and that his long career was ample fodder they could have worked with.Comedy Central goes way overboard in trying to draw an audience and this POS excuse for a program takes it to the nth degree. A waste of 90 minutes.

This show is absolutely hilarious. It is nonstop laughter with arguably the greatest B actor in Hollywood history as the target for some of the most outrageously funny barbs ever uttered in a television show. What makes this show particularly amusing is that the guest roasters are spoofing an actor who is not one of the great performers but nevertheless has managed to become one of the most well-known stars in history which is an ongoing theme of this show. The one-liners come on fast and furious. Betty White is especially funny and George Takei is great. In fact this roast is spoof on the Hollywood roasts of the past except this one is a lot funnier and includes the kind of comments that makes the roasts of the past seem tame in comparison.

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.

Although I have not personally seen the entire program, I have heard from numerous sources that the "N.Y. Friars Roast of Chevy Chase" broadcast on Comedy Central a few years ago was such a disaster that even Comedy Central acknowledged its failure and vowed never to air it on television again. So far they have apparently kept to their promise. Part of the reason the show was so horrendous was apparently due to the fact that the roast's subject, Mr. Chase, did not approve of the jokes targeting his career. He was also upset that none of his old "friends" from his "SNL" days had shown up (except for one or two no-names who never found a career outside of the program) - the same "friends" of Chevy that later voted him as the least-liked cast member in the history of "SNL." Now, I hold nothing against Chevy Chase. He's pretty funny (well, was, anyway) in those '80s comedy like "Vacation" and "Caddyshack." But from what I've seen of the program he really didn't understand the concept at all.William Shatner, on the other hand, takes the extreme criticism in stride. He's a good sport all through this roast - some of the jokes are truly brutal, ranging from verbal jabs at his alleged hairpiece to his singing career and of course his infamous acting chops. Shatner's good humor surrounding the entire ordeal elevates this program - because I'm sure I would have felt less content to laugh along with all the jokes if Shatner had thrown a Chevy Chase and been a jerk about it.This isn't quite as good as last year's Pamela Anderson roast, I must say. Overall the jokes are tamer (excluding some crude references to a gay "Star Trek" castmember and his private activities, so to speak) - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I felt as though a lot of the dirtier stuff had been cut out. This doesn't bother me as much as the fact that the cuts were made fairly obvious. No doubt Comedy Central will feature some type of "Uncut" DVD in the future with bonus material "too raunchy for television." Plus, I absolutely HATED the fact that they cut numerous roasters' speeches short. I understand there were time constraints, but the first one who should have been axed was Farrah Fawcett, whose speech was absolutely horrid. Apparently trying to make fun of her notorious Letterman appearance from a few years back, it quickly dissolved into another case of a joke falling victim to its own subject - she was wasted out of her mind! She completely messed up her jokes, kept turning away from the microphone (making it hard to hear what she was saying), and just generally ruined the vibe of the entire thing. The audience members (including Carrie Fisher, who gets stabbed with jokes a few times linked to her weight gain) were straining to laugh.Instead, I would have FAR preferred to see comedy genius Fred Willard's speech. They decided to cut it short and give us probably less than a minute or so of what he actually said when the show was recorded last week. Willard is such a fine, dry comedian - chances are his jokes just weren't understood by the editors of this show, who are obviously in favor of the more obvious, deliberately crude material.Basically the whole thing about the gay Star Trek member was funny the first few dozen times, but it's akin to Pam Anderson's boob jokes from last year getting old - enough is enough. Not that I'm complaining, but Andy Dick and Kevin Pollak were also cut short (I could go without hearing Dick's entire routine, I admit) - and the editing is more choppy than last year's roast, resulting in noticeable skips - as if the editors selected the "best" of each roaster and spliced it together.But these flaws aside, the show WAS very funny. I laughed my head off when Ben Stiller appeared in a pre-recorded roast to Shatner. Unexpected and hilarious, Stiller's was one of my favorite segments of the entire program! Jason Alexander was a surprisingly good host, although he seemed a bit hesitative and unsure at times. Overall I think I preferred Kimmel's more cynical presentation from last year's, but again, it's a minor complaint.Overall if you're a fan of these roasts you'll love this. There are some great moments such as the Shatner music flashbacks - including video pieces from his infamous "Rocket Man" performance from years ago. Shatner takes it all in stride and comes across as a really nice, likable guy - even after all is said and done he gets up and delivers a tongue-in-cheek roast to himself.This may not be quite as unexpected, irreverent or downright hilarious as the Pamela Anderson roast, but just barely. My only complaints, as I mentioned above, were the editing choices, really - apart from that, it was another job well done on Comedy Central's behalf! As an aside, I'd really love to see "The Roast of David Hasselhoff" next year. NO ONE deserves a roast as much as this guy does. So I'll have my fingers crossed for the next year, I suppose.