Comedy Central’s roasts have been pretty hit and miss in my opinion.  Thinking back to the Drew Carey roast, there were inspired moments, and some of the comedians who seem to live for this type of event really shined (Jeffery Ross and Patton Oswalt in particular).  However, by and large, the potential for hilarity far outweighs the actual amount of legitimate laughs the majority of the time.  With the last few roasts, I’ve felt this was largely due to the person being roasted.   

For instance, how many jokes can you make at the expense of Hugh Hefner or Pamela Anderson?  Seriously, both of those celebrities have some obvious targets in their backgrounds for comics to zero in on, but with ten to twelve roasters piling on, those targets get old pretty fast.   

That’s why when I heard about the William Shatner roast, I thought, “Here’s a comedy goldmine.”  No person in the history of people is a more willing and gigantic target than William Shatner.  The man has single-handedly defined the words “comic target”.  He overacted his way through one of the most successful franchises in entertainment history.  He has somehow sustained an enduring career playing essentially himself.  He took a bad recording career and somehow made it cool and funny.  Everything he’s ever done has had an air of camp to it, even when he’s playing it straight.   

His ego is legendary but so is his willingness to poke fun at that ego and then feign anger over the verbal slights.  The thing about Shatner is, you never know if he really is insulted or not.  Either way, he’s going to walk away a cooler celebrity than before.  I don’t know how he does it, but that’s his true talent.  Nothing bad EVER sticks to him.  He’s the Teflon celebrity. 

By the end of the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner you’ll be asking yourself the same question Shatner asks when he finally takes the podium, “Is that the best you can do?  It’s not like there was any shortage of material to work with.” 

Unfortunately for the viewers and fans of Shatner, the majority of the roasters focus their barbs on each other.  Sure, a few go after Shatner pretty hard (especially George Takei whose bit sounds suspiciously like it was not meant to be funny).  Patton Oswalt ends his bit with only one joke at Shatner’s expense, but it’s a great one.  Andy Dick is the only one who spends his entire time focusing on Shatner and his relationship with Spock, but thanks to the wisdom of Comedy Central, we only get to see an edited portion of that.   

When it comes down to it, that’s my biggest problem with this DVD.  Within the cable television format, things need to be trim, and having 80 minutes of edited comedy is completely acceptable and forgivable.  On DVD though, why are we still given an edited roast?  Sure the cussing isn’t bleeped out, but the performances are chopped to pieces.  Among the roasters whose full performances we don’t see are Nichelle Nichols, Fred Willard, and the aforementioned Andy Dick.    All of the pieces I saw of their performances made me wish I could see the rest, however Comedy Central sees fit to leave them out and show us Farrah Fawcett’s performance… which SUCKS beyond compare.   

That’s not my only issue with this DVD.  I also seriously dislike that Comedy Central was too lazy to add a chapter menu to this disc.  Is it really that fucking hard guys?  Now if I do want to show a friend the Jeffrey Ross portion I have to fast forward through 40 minutes of bullshit.   

Are there funny moments to this disc?  Hell yes.  Greg Giraldo, Artie Lange, Betty White, Jeffrey Ross, Patton Oswalt and especially Lisa Lampanelli all shine, but again, the potential was so much greater than the result.   

This disc is definitely worth a rental.  You won’t go away without a smile on your face, and in my opinion, the best performance of the night comes from Shatner himself as he finally takes the podium and skewers EVERYONE.  Still, I can’t recommend you buy it unless you are a true Shatner fan and completist. 

Presentation 
It was shot for television and it looks like it.  I had trouble getting screencaps for this because the video kept breaking up when I would try to capture a single frame.  Still, you’re not renting this to focus on the visuals… that would be the Pamela Anderson roast. 

Extras 
There’s some funny stuff in the extras, so don’t return the disc without checking them out.  First up you’ve got Behind the Scenes footage.  This is better than average because the focus is on the comedians.  You’ll also see some faces you don’t see on the main feature. 

The Red Carpet Interviews are fun also, and again, they give you access to some of the people whose faces you see in the audience but who you never hear from during the roast itself.   

Finally, there’s a Making of the Roast featurette that’s entertaining if not rewatchable. 

Also included on this set are trailers for South Park Season 9, Reno 911, Mind of Mencia and the Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson. 

The Bottom Line 
The bottom line is it’s still funny.  It’s not what it could have been, and who knows?  Maybe that’s because George Takei came out of the closet a month before and stole Shatner’s thunder.  Either way, you’ll laugh if you watch it, but you probably won’t go back for seconds.