William Shatner Roast (DVD)

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HAM ROAST
William Shatner gets grilled by Comedy Central

In the beginning there was the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. And it was lewd. Or at least as lewd as such megawatt comics as Don Rickles, Milton Berle and Jack Benny could get away with in the pre-cable era. Next came the Friars Club roasts, an annual event dating back to the 1950s, but not televised until Comedy Central realized their worth in 1998. Since then, Comedy Central has also produced its own roasts. These tend to be nights of very funny, very obscene stand-up comedy presented under the false pretense of honoring a has-been entertainer. Such is certainly the case with the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner, out in an extended, uncensored cut on DVD.

As an interviewer puts it in one of several backstage bonus features, the cast is “a veritable ‘Who’s That?’ of Hollywood C-list actors.” Jason Alexander hosts, and Betty White is about as classy as the roster gets, while such circuit comics as Artie Lange, Jeffrey Ross and Lisa Lampanelli hold nothing back. Lampanelli, expressing her bedroom preferences, instructs us that she’s “provided more openings to black men than affirmative action.”

As they freely admit, most of the participants don’t really know Shatner very well. This includes Farrah Fawcett who gives a dazed and confused monologue and gets licked on the face by Andy Dick. Leonard Nimoy had the career savvy to stay home, but a couple of “Star Trek” alumni do turn up. In comedy, timing is everything, and the taping of this special occurred within months of George Takei’s pronouncement of his homosexuality. As Sulu on Star Trek, he could not have been more earnest. Now a “creepy old gay dude” as Alexander describes him, he rattles off a series of cock-related one-liners and is, to coin a phrase, the butt of jokes from nearly every other participant. The brightest gag of the evening involves a visual of him coming out of the closet. Even Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) gets in on the act with an amusing anecdote involving Mr. Takei’s tongue.

Seated in his captain’s chair from the USS Enterprise, Shatner is a gracious roastee, enduring video montages of his infamous singing appearances and pre-taped insults from the likes of Ben Stiller and Sarah Silverman. Naturally, he’s given the opportunity to laugh last and rises to the occasion with a monologue that any Trekker would find as blue as Romulan Ale.
- Stan Friedman   May 2, 2007