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The Comedy Central Roast: William Shatner
10:00 PM ET -Comedy Central-
Former "Seinfeld" star Jason Alexander hosts the Comedy Central roast of actor/"singer" William Shatner. Now, if there was ever a celebrity ripe for the roasting, it's Shatner -- and thankfully, he doesn't take himself too seriously and will probably join in the lampooning. The stable of roasters reads like a "Who's Who" of comedy and includes Patton Oswalt, Kevin Pollak, Lisa Lampanelli, Jeffrey Ross and Fred Willard. Additionally, folks like Sharon Stone, "Boston Legal" co-stars Julie Bowen, Betty White and Rene Auberjonois, "TJ Hooker" co-star Adrian Zmed and "Star Trek" alumni Nichelle Nichols and George Takei will offer their own humorous (and hopefully naughty) anecdotes about "the Shat."

More like a "Who's That?" of comedy. I recognize a couple of the names, but couldn't pick any of these famous comedians out of a police lineup.

I hope this trend of identifying certain people like Shatner as ironically cool ends soon. I appreciate Shatner's kitsch, but have no interest in viewing a career retrospective on same.

What is wrong with Farah Fawcett?

I want to be either Nichelle Nichols or Carrie Fisher when I grow up.

I don't know what's wrong with Farrah- maybe she was really drunk?

My favorite line of the night- Andy Dick is so gay he thinks Margaret Cho is funny.

I don't get it. I didn't know any of the comedians and only a few could come up with material that wasn't just a string of swear words. Swear words aren't clever or funny. Or endless dick jokes. Where's the sarcasm of a Mort Sahl or someone really good?

I was thinking of the roasts with the old-timers like Steve Allen, Carson, Joey Bishop, where they actually had to come up with decent material. At least they had that woman who could close it out okay, but Shatner deserved better. And after all the Comedy Central hype. I got took.

Hey! It's one of Jason Alexander's writers! :)

George Takai and Betty White were the only two who were actually funny. Though Shatner got a few jabs in at the end that brought a chuckle. And Sandy Bullock delivers a better pseudo-clip than Ben Stiller. I guess Ben can only really get into a "bit" if he is pimping his latest movie.

The rest of them blew. I guess we can be thankful that Silverman was kept to a minimum, DiPaolo never showed and Colin Quinn finally realized he wasn't funny.

When the best part of the roast is playing "who's that" during shots of the audience (and actually recognizing more people there than on the dais) you know it is pretty bad. CC was finally able to rustle up a good contingent of the B and C list and they end up with some of the worst "comedy" attempts ever. I wasn't sure which part was the worst. Dick's costume bit, Lange giggling at the end of each of his own jokes, Fred Willard, Nichelle or Farrah.

I can't believe they have Shatner to roast and that was the best they could do.

It seemed more like a George Takei Roast than a William Shatner roast.

Takei was hilarious, though. So was White. Not that I can remember them all, but I think my favorite line was Takei's rip on Farrah Fawcett. Oy, that hurt.

Of course, my TiVo cut out with a half-hour left to go, so I'm watching the rerun now to see the rest of it.

with Farrah Fawcett being this year's Courtney Love.

George Takei was very good though, as was Betty White. And I did like that one joke by that guy who showed Shatner a paper bag and asked him to act his way out of it. The rest was meh.

I met George Takei when he was here for our Pride Parade and he is just as funny in person as he was on the show tonight. George and his partner Brad Altman are just adorable. The roast was spot on and Betty White is still going strong at 84 years old. She has more clarity than Farrah Fawcett.

Is George Takei gay? Becuase i believe there were some subtle hints dropped during the roast that may indicate he is. :)

Yup.George is gay-Witness his appearances on Howard Stern's radio show. Howard,et al goof on George,but he takes it in his stride.

Dude, my 8 year old niece's pet hamster has more clarity than Farrah Fawcett, so that really ain't saying much.

Could someone please tell me how Andy Dick is funny? All he does is ham and draw attention to himself during other people's sets. When he has to get up and actually tell jokes he's the hackiest hack that ever hacked.



Those guys cleaned it up when the cameras were on, but there were also segments of of the old Roasts that were conducted just in front of audiences that were very blue. That's how blue comedians like Don Rickles and Red Fox got to be known as king of the roasts.

And I'm not sure I would include Joey Bishop in a list of classic comedic minds.

Well, that was painfully unfunny. At least they'll quit advertising it constantly on Comedy Central, but Takei and White were pretty funny. During the whole show, I kept thinking, they should have gotten Stephen Colbert up there. Now that man can roast and he's funny. Hell, he roasted the freakin' president. Shatner would be easy.

edited to make a little sense...it's late

I could have put this in the "Aging in the Star Trek Universe," but I really think this needs it's own thread for now.

Lisa Lampanelli had a great line: "I tried to TiVo T.J. Hooker, but my TiVo recommended I punch myself in the c*nt."

C-word jokes might not be everyone's cup of tea, but no Patton Oswalt love?

"By the way, when I posted that joke on a message board, the response was LMFAOWIHABFAFUMRAWMMTMTTOMRFBNA. Which... means 'Laughing My Figurative Ass Off While I Have A Boba Fett Action Figure Up My Real Ass While My Mom Tells Me To Turn Off My Rush Fly By Night Album."

Classic!

Oh, and I had never seen Shatner's pretty infamous Mr. Tamborine Man performance.

"MR. TAMBORINE MAAAAAAAN!!!!"

While Shatner has become an icon of irony, Takei has quietly been hillarious for years. Akira on the Simpsons, Howard Stern, Conan, Letterman, "Hot wet bitches?" on TDS...

It seemed like a roast of anyone but Shatner. That was painful to watch, really.

Not usually a fan of Andy Dick, but his "offspring of Spock & Kirk (Kock, which my closed captioning said Khan or didn't write at all) was funny. I think it was the only part that was totally relevant to Shatner, not to the whole crowd.

Yayayay, no Sarah Silverman.

George Takei took it in stride. Betty White was not funny. Farah? Why was she even there????

Farrah Fawcett needs to sue her plastic surgeon/dentist. That was NOT Farrah!!! That was an impostor. Her trademark teeth..GONE!! Didn't even sound like her. I can understand different hairstyles but the teeth...no way! And she should never, NEVER wear sleeveless dresses out in public. She must have the same surgeon as Nicollette Sheridan. Fug-lee!!

Oh, my God. I only caught the first hour of the roast...holy crap. Betty White was hilarious! And I really could have done without Andy Dick. Is it me or is he getting creepier?

I LOVED Betty White.Andy Dick..aptly named.Loved George Takei-but no surprise there.Too bad James Doohan didn't live to attend-might have been interesting.And the Shatner/Mike Douglas clip-hilarious. I havent seen the previous roasts-do all the speakers write their own material?

By far, my new favorite one-liner was Shatner to some random D-lister: "If this were an episode of Star Trek, you'd be wearing a red shirt and you would've been killed already." I have to find a way to use that in real life.

I caught the second half. It was pretty 'meh' overall. Too much reliance on vagina and gay-sex jokes. It says something really bad about the "talent" of the roasters when Sarah Silverman/Jimmy Kimmel made one of the two most clever jokes of the night. The other being the "Can you act your way out of this?" gag.

It's too bad Andy Dick is an irredeemable human being, because I almost enjoyed his bit in the Vulcan lovechild costume. I took it as a shout-out to slash and male-pregnancy fanfiction, which really did originate with Kirk/Spock.

As bad as Farrah looked, it was Adrian Zmed that took the "ohmigodwhatthehellisthat" award. I actually thought Fawcett looked about right for her age who probably drank, smoked and sat out in the sun way too much.

Zmed, on the other hand, looked like someone applied a heat lamp to his face for days on end. I was actually scared for a moment.

By the way, someone mentioned, in the other thread, the absence of Nimoy (except on tape). As it happens, today's newspaper had a picture of him and Shatner getting a bit emotional at a convention in Vegas this past weekend.

She actually looks a lot better than she used to. Farah

Fell asleep toward the end...whatever.

The "music" clips were very scary. The radio station in college had his record. Never played it.

Anyone else out there think that if George Takei was not, OMG, gay, then the jokes would have been even worse. I only liked Betty and George's jokes as well.

I loved Greg Geraldo but I always love him. Overall I laughed. I agree that many of the jokes were derived from the same sources and so much gay and fat humor but I remember laughing a few times. Still isnt good that I can't remember a damn thing. The Kock thing was funny for half a second then I fast FFed. Got tiresome. Andy Dick is an unmitigated attention whore. He started licking people while others were at the mic. What is that?

Man, what the hell is wrong with Andy Dick? I kept thinking "Newsradio, newsradio" but it doesn't work like it used to. He's just intolerable now.

I don't know why I watch these roasts. I laughed like twice. I liked it better than last year though. A lot more of the roasters seemed to have a genuine love and respect for Shatner.

Shatner deserved better. But I did enjoy George-I agree, he has been hilarious for years and anyone who has ever been to a convention knows this(not that I ever went to a convention dressed as a yeoman or anything).Betty White is awesome. Nichelle Nichols-now there's someone I'd like to sit down with and hear some stories.
Kevin Pollack and Jason Alexander really seemed to revere Shatner while they were ripping him.The other guys? I'm not sure if any of them had actually seen Shatner in anything other than Priceline commercials.
"Keep it gay..." Hee.Shatner/Mike Douglas...aww.

How about a George Takei roast next? Oh, that wasn't what I watched?

IMHO the problem is that, in Boston Legal, Wm. Shatner has set the irony and self-parody standard too high. "Take that, bitches."

Man, did his date look pissed anytime they ripped him!

Betty White, I bow to your greatness. She's so natural, and even in her 80s didn't need a sheet of paper to remember her jokes.

I guess I was one of the few who enjoyed most of the roast. But I don't watch a lot of roasts, because I usually don't find them funny. I loved (paraphrasing): "That Farrah Fawcett swimsuit poster caused more DNA to be spilled than a crime lab technician with Parkinson's disease." I also liked Ben Stiller's line about Takei claiming his lap was a transporter to heaven (or something like that). I also liked Kevin Pollack's thanking WS for letting him make more money off WS's career than WS had.

I couldn't tell if Andy Dick was getting seriously pissed off about the gay jokes or if that was an act.

I liked the line about Courtney Love wearing Andy Dick's skin, and Lisa L's so old the prize was fire line. Lord help me, Shatner liked that one too. I was mildly surprised no one made any nasty jokes about his dead wife in the pool. Does anyone know if there were any jokes like that made & edited out for broadcast?

I heard a few days before the roast that Artie Lang had the line of the night. That must have been edited out too because his set wasn't memorable in the least.

I actually thought the Carson Daly "Bash" on MTV was better than this. My favorite parts of these roasts are where the neurotic, desperate-for-fame stand up comics like Lampanelli, Jeff Ross, Giraldo, and their ilk gleefully rip into each other. It's not funny because of the jokes but rather because of the willingness to shred each other for their own careers.

True, but that's not saying much since she still looks a bit...off. I know she's hitting 60 but Farrrah is a shell of her former self. I was looking over her profile on IMDB.com and I'm shocked this woman has a college degree in microbiology.

I feel bad for Farrah. I remember "Charlie's Angels" & how much attention it got from the media. I was fascinated by Farrah & her gorgeous hair & spent so much time trying to get my hair to feather back like hers. She had this unique beauty, very unusual (heck, she suffers from the same problem Shannen Doherty has -- one eye higher on her face than the other) & she was soooo sexy! Even I knew that, & I was only an 11-year-old heterosexual girl! People were going crazy over her! Then she left the show, tried film & made a lot of clunkers. Her looks started to fade. I imagine that really did a number on her self-esteem.

But yeah, she always seems so out of it now.

I thought it was hilarious. What's with the Sarah Silverman hate here? I adore her.

That was one topic Shatner declared off-limits before the roast.

Betty White kicks ass. Her comic timing is impeccable.

Man, Rene Auberjenois was totally losing his shit when they'd cut to him.

Me too, especially with the whole merging of name (Kock). Too bad everything else he did made me hate that he was part of a truly funny sitcom years ago.

Betty White and George Takei's reply to everyone else's barrage of gay jokes were the best parts of the show. Patton Oswalt also had some good jokes, like the paper bag and the initials. Everyone else, lame.

Earlier in the day, I happened to be watching the Larry the Cable Guy movie (don't ask). Lisa Lampanelli was in it, playing Larry's girlfriend's grotesque trailer trash mom. Basically, she looked the way you'd imagine if she looked like the jokes everyone else tells about her.

Because she's terribly unfunny, unentertaining and quite annoying? Yea, I'd agree with all that.

I was disappointed in the roast, as well. It was William-freakin'-Shatner and the only roasters that made it worthwhile were Betty White, George Takei and Nichelle Nichols. I wished Nimoy would've made an appearance and no, the opening bit doesn't count!

And is Farrah trying to be known now for being the ginormous train-wreck that she's become? Because her appearance was just embarrassing.

So much potential. So little satisfaction.

I wasn't sure at times who they were supposed to be roasting, Wm Shatner or Geo. Takei.

They seemed to be referred to in equal measure.

Okeh, we got it Geo. Takei is gay...

That said, I was laughing pretty much throughout with the exception of Farrah Fawcett. Why was her bra strap hanging down and all?

I didn't find many of the jokes to be funny and whenever they'd cut to the audience just howling with laughter I spent time wondering how drunk the entire audience was. That had to be one HUUUUGE bar tab.

I did enjoy the last line, which was something like this: If you're talented and nice, you can work in Hollywood forever (like Shatner). If you're not (talented and nice) at least you can still get work on Comedy Central. Lampenelli got that right.

Betty White and George Takei were hysterical.

What the hell was the point of Andy Dick licking people? EWWW! Scarred for life!

Absolutely. I know she was probably reading from a prompter, but you couldn't tell it. She looked far more at ease than anyone else up there.

And yeah, what a group of B-and-C-listers -- besides White and perhaps Fred Willard, none of them have the status or longevity of Shatner. Which would have been fine if they had a connection to Shatner, but again, for most of them, none. And Willard and Nichelle Nichols got abbreviated sets at that. Grrr.


So, so true.

From what I heard, Nichols was terrible, so I'm guessing that's why we saw a very abbreviated version of her schtick.

I'm disappointed there weren't more BL co-stars there to do some roasting. Candice Bergen and James Spader would have rocked.

I thought it was fucking hysterical and hysterically mean -- it's a roast, after all -- but I think some of the audience cut-tos were fake, which was weird.

And ugly. Don't forget ugly. Jimmy Kimmel must have chosen her as his girl if only to make himself feel better about his looks.

Nichelle Nichols probably didn't have much memorable material to work with, but she tried. Although she does look incredibly beautiful and regal for a woman her age.

I thought hearing the great Betty White saying the word "cockring" was a guffaw moment for me.

I wish Andy Dick would just die already!

He roasts himself in that show! I guess they could only do more roasting of each other.


Don't know if she's ugly or not, that not for me to say, but HA! about Jimmy Kimmel's self-esteem levels.

What's the story about his wife?

Have to agree with most of the posters here...

Loved Andy Dick's "Kock" bit - hated everything else. I think he got more "screen time" than Shatner! I don't understand why they concentrated so much on his "supposed" gayness though...doesn't he have a big drug problem too? For the record, I don't think Andy's really gay, I think he's just an effeminite heterosexual (SNL shoutout!).

Nichelle looks awesome and Farah should take some lessons from her on how to look DAMN good for your age.

Liked George's set too...esp his last line about "...and the horse you rode in on!" line, seeing as how Shatner actually rode in...on a horse.

Betty was good too, she does "innocent" with just the right amount of dirty for shock value.

I wouldn't have minded Farah so much if she would have had a bag over her fucked up face. And arms. And...oh hell if she would have just had a big hefty bag over her whole body. The first set up / joke was kinda cute and I think was scripted. The rest was painful to watch.

Lisa, Patton and Jeff were the best of the "pros" everyone else kinda...er sucked and not in a good way. I wish that Fred would have been funnier, though he wasn't as bad as some.

One thing I don't understand is why some people seemed to have memorized their roast and others had really unprofessional-looking, crumpled sheets of paper they were going by. Very distracting. The people who didn't use the paper came off "better" even if they weren't as funny, per se.



Google it sometime, but the gist of the story I think is that Shatner discovered his wife (#3? 4?) floating face-down in their swimming pool a few years ago. He attempted to give CPR, but she was dead. What I found strange is that I believe they were in the midst of a divorce at the time and he had moved out of the house...

I was surprised that he was never considered a suspect or anything, because MY first thought when I heard of the story was "oh, another OJ in the making!" Anyway, I think that eventually it was ruled a suicide.