Monday, August 14, 2006

I was at "Roast of William Shatner" - to air Sunday on Comedy Central - warning, this post contains filth

Last night I attended the roast of William Shatner (Visiting Hours, Kingdom of the Spiders, Incubus) and I must say it was every bit as vulgar as the Pamela Anderson show from last year. Gay jokes abound, as Sulu, George Takei, came out of the closet recently. You would swear at times that the is the George Takie roast - on the mic, Takie is absolutely hilarious.

Uhura, Nichelle Nichols, was on hand to be the victim of many black jokes. Her speech was somewhat... drunken, but more coherent than the strange delivery by Farrah Fawcett. It will be interesting to see how these things play out when edited for TV.

The event went on for quite a while. I was by far the grubbiest guest, but managed to be seated at a great table near the front and may even be in crowd shouts, who knows. My table-mates were certainly be shown as they were drinking heavily and therefor laughing their asses of at everything. This makes for good reaction shots. By the way, there was free liquor for most, though I do not drink.

Jason Alexander was the host. Biggest crowd reactions came from Shatner's speech, obviously, and Betty White, who got a standing ovation. Andy Dick's act did not work for me. It was by far the most elaborate, as he was dressed as a Vulcan and had the captain's log. He claimed to really be Andy "Kock", a combination of Kirk and Spock as he told the tale of their gay love. He said Shatner shit him out in an alley in downtown Los Angeles. Some of the jokes that killed the crowd were actually the cleaner ones. For example, something like, "Betty White has been on TV so long that when she was on a gameshow, the prize was fire." People loved the old fashioned bad jokes, though Lisa Lampanelli, saved for last, was hilarious while very mean and crude. I'd wondered why all the other comedians were so mean to her throughout the show, saying she was a horse, a donkey, a man at a urinal (I think Betty White said that!), and full of bling in her vagina from all the black cocks that went in there.

More stars show up in video vignettes - they were not there - which saved there assess from getting roasted by the comedians as it seems anyone on the stage is fair game. In fact anyone in the crowd was fair game, Carrie Fisher, Seven of Nine, some young actor in a cowboy hat, anyone. I look forward to seeing this on TV, the show was great, and I am a big Shatner fan. Nerds take not: I may not have told you enough details, but the Captain's chair from the enterprise was Shatner's seat on stage and there was a Tribble there as well.

My biggest spoiler for nerds, Clint Howard (Ice Cream Man, 1995) in a video vignette where he reprises the role he played as a kid on classic Trek, Balok the evil ruling baby. Now he is elderly and still mean and drunk. This shit is funny, no doubt.

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