# Anyone else get uncomfortable watching the roast of William Shatner? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556 "2006-08-21T04:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cherry\_Garcia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@Cherry\_Garcia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cherry_Garcia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556/61 "2006-08-22T05:25:29Z")
\*sigh, does anybody else miss the old Dean Martin roasts? I’m gonna have to order me some DVDs next time the commercial comes on TV. I would have loved to see a Shatner roast then. I thought Shatner’s description of Farrah Fawcett as a “train wreck in a dress who used to be hot” in the recorded segment with Nimoy was spot-on. And the green Orion slave girls were a nice touch. Worthy of Captain James Tiberius Kirk. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556/62 "2006-08-22T05:33:30Z")
I’m almost wondering at this point if the things that make Shatner deserving of a roast also make him hard to roast: “Your acting sucks. No, really. It sucks. And you’re a dickhead.” I’m watching bits of this thing again, and while most of it is not good, Takei playing against type is a highlight. Maybe he hates Shatner and maybe he doesn’t, but it was worth it to hear “Sulu” say some of those things. I missed Shatner’s closing last night, and holy fuck, he was really funny! He may have been the best part. “Why is everyone who was inspired by me such a fat fucking loser?” [Anyway, here is Colbert’s roast of Chevy Chase.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p58zxyYumeY) Note Richard Belzer’s “Wow” response, and the fact that he completely slices Chase to bits. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556/63 "2006-08-22T08:40:19Z")
[QUOTE=Bill Door] I think one of the problems with Shatner’s roast is that there is that nuclear option in the background that they couldn’t touch because they were told “ixnay on the eaday ifeway”. The roasters, to prove they weren’t pussies, had to leapfrog over that issue, and get to material that was in even worse taste than that, and you’ve got to go pretty far to be in worse taste than that. [/QUOTE] I’ve heard the 911 tapes of Shatner’s call about his wife being in the pool. It is _not_ something I’d care to hear again, he was in an absolute panic over the matter and you’d have a hard time believing that this was the same guy who hosted _Rescue 911_. Had someone made a crack about his late wife, I don’t doubt that he’d have killed them, and I wouldn’t blame him. I thought that the comments about _him_ being alcoholic were a bit too close to the bone. I’ll never forget seeing his press conference where he broke down and cried about his wife being dead and my then SIL saying, “I wonder if he killed her?” To which I replied, “Nah, he can’t act his way out of a paperbag, so there’s no way he could fake that grief.” ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556/64 "2006-08-22T09:44:53Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] [Anyway, here is Colbert’s roast of Chevy Chase.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p58zxyYumeY) Note Richard Belzer’s “Wow” response, and the fact that he completely slices Chase to bits. [/QUOTE] Man that was BRILLIANT! ---
**Author:** ![Jean\_Poutine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a5b964/32.png) [@Jean\_Poutine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jean_Poutine)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556/65 "2006-08-22T13:33:29Z")
I was also glad they didn’t rip on his dead wife, the only one who would come close to having the balls to do it would be Jeffrey Ross, as his Kurt Cobain joke was made to Courtney Love’s face, but she doesn’t really count as a real person anymore anyway, and I doubt she was coherent enough for it to register. I will say that Andy Dick’s cameo as the long haired motel clerk in Road Trip was friggin’ hilarious. Does anyone know the origin of the clip they showed of Shatner singing “Rocket Man”? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556/66 "2006-08-23T22:52:42Z")
[QUOTE=Jean Poutine] Does anyone know the origin of the clip they showed of Shatner singing “Rocket Man”? [/QUOTE] It’s from a science-fiction award show broadcast in the late 1970’s, and, based on tape quality, probably comes from a home-video recording, rather that the master tape. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-get-uncomfortable-watching-the-roast-of-william-shatner/369556.md?page=3)