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Shatner Comedy Central roast

J

jayrath

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Courtesy Netflix, I just saw this today.

It was not only a complete waste of time, it was incredibly offensive. Is this what passes for wit today? Gay jokes, semen jokes, excrement jokes, urine jokes. By comparison, the jokes about toupees and being fat were hilarious.

A few good clips and Clint Howard's turn as Balok were entertaining.

I find it hard to believe that this was produced by the same network that brings us "The Colbert Report." Talk about lowest common denominator!
 
jayrath said:
Courtesy Netflix, I just saw this today.

It was not only a complete waste of time, it was incredibly offensive. Is this what passes for wit today? Gay jokes, semen jokes, excrement jokes, urine jokes. By comparison, the jokes about toupees and being fat were hilarious.

A few good clips and Clint Howard's turn as Balok were entertaining.

I find it hard to believe that this was produced by the same network that brings us "The Colbert Report." Talk about lowest common denominator!
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Yeah it was pretty pathetic. I am sorry you had to watch the show since I wish I had not seen it myself. Mr. Shatner hated it too. But what can you say? Why didn't he listen to Mr. Nimoy who told him not to do it?

Mr. Shatner made witty rebuttals to some of the comments/insults made at the Roast in his new book Shatner Rules though. :)
 
The tone for the Comedy Central roasts was pretty well set by the Hugh Hefner roast. During it, Gilbert Gottfried nearly lost the audience to shouts of, "Too soon!" when he made a 9/11 joke. In response, Gottfried told the legendary joke "The Aristocrats."

I'll not repeat the joke as it's highly vulgar in any form. It's primarily a joke told by comedians to other comedians, with the difference in delivery and specific wording providing most of the humor.

Anyway, if you know that "The Aristocrats" pretty well defines these modern roasts, what went on during Shatner's was pretty tame by comparison.

Dakota Smith
 
Yeah, it's something I watched and didn't find very funny. The concept of "roasts" has become something of an excuse to be offensive to the guest in the name of humour.
 
I'm just going to say that I found it hilarious!
It's just for fun, and it's true; if Scotty beamed up Shatner now, he would break the fucking transporter!
 
I don't mind gross out/offensive humour if it's done well, but the big problem with this for me was every comedian seemed to do the same half dozen, not especially good jokes. Shatner is fat, Shatner is hammy, Betty White is old, George Takai is gay... over and over and over. It just became very very dull by the end.
 
i remember being excited for this and then i watched it. ugh, it was awful. its one of those things that should be destroyed or used as a form of torture.
 
If anything to me it was a commentary on just how petty, immature and desperate for attention so many Hollywood types truly are. If you think about it, many of them were seniors and behaving like they just stepped out of Grade 9.

As for the decades old hate-on some of the second tier TOS stars have for Shatner (which I believe is very contrived and an extension of that desperation for attention), any venom lobbed at Shatner during that telecast should have been enough, and for those that continue with it today - to me it just speaks of how small THEY truly are, and you can forget the "it was just for fun" excuse.

BTW - I tip my hat to Walter Koenig. He just may be the most intelligent and mature among the second tier stars, and he was big enough to publicly state that Shatner wasn't all that bad and that there had been enough accusation made over the years.
 
The Shatner roast was some of the worst television I have ever had the misfortune to witness. I did not - could not - watch it all. Raw Nerve, on the other hand, is something I have enjoyed.
 
I rewatched this back in July. It was kind of sad to realize that Farrah Fawcet has been dead for two years. She looked as if she would outlive most if not everyone on the panel.
 
Captain Rob said:
I rewatched this back in July. It was kind of sad to realize that Farrah Fawcet has been dead for two years. She looked as if she would outlive most if not everyone on the panel.
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Yes, I suppose, but I just felt bad for her during the show. So many cheap jokes at her expense. And then she came off as, well, on drugs or otherwise mentally addled. I felt ashamed for watching it, and skipped ahead.
 
^ Fawcet often came off that way. She was Letterman's most pathetic interview until Joachim Phoenix came along, at which point Letterman apologized to Fawcet. She may have been a sweet person, but she was California vapid.
 
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I had the good fortune to meet George Takei some time after William Shatner's roast. He felt like it was his roast, even though he wasn't the roastee. Can't say I blame him -- yeah, roasts pick on everyone who's there, but at times it seemed like the insults directed at him outnumbered the ones aimed at Shatner.

As for the complaints about modern day roasts in this thread, I blame more of Comedy Central than the current roast format. Their big problem is that they have a consistent cast of roasters for every episode (Jeffrey Ross, for example), which very much negates the concept and adage that you're roasted by the ones you love. Well, if you're more of an employee, you don't really know the roastee, do you?

Now, with that said, I watched some of the Charlie Sheen roast, again thanks to Netflix. Shatner had some really great digs:

Shatner: I'm 80 years old. You're what, 47?
Sheen: 46.
Shatner: How come we look like we went to high school together?

He also talked about how he formed a kidney stone and sold it for $75,000 for charity, in essence converting uric acid and calcium and turning it into a house for Habitat for Humanity, and was thus the superior warlock over Sheen. :)
 
the CC roasts are just sad in general. The Hasselhoff one, the Saget one, etc. it's not really about the guest it's about vulgar, stupid jokes.
 
sonak said:
the CC roasts are just sad in general. The Hasselhoff one, the Saget one, etc. it's not really about the guest it's about vulgar, stupid jokes.
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Aye, the Friars Club Roasts, especially the old ones, were about vulgar, clever jokes. If I watch the CC roasts, I tend to wait until the roastee's friends perform, as their jokes tend to be more personal, in effect more knowledgeable, more affectionate, and more scathing. I skip over anyone who has no real link to the roastee, and was perhaps just contractually obligated to do it.
 
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