I haven't seen the roast, but Patton Oswalt is actually a *really* funny standup comic - not to mention a card-carrying geek who, even on the road, goes to a comic book store every Wednesday for the new books....

Oh yeah, forgot what I meant to say about "celebrity roasts." Again, I haven't seen this one, but it seems like the modern revival of the "roast," from what I've read and heard, lacks a lot of what made the old Dean Martin roasts fun (supposedly - I haven't seen much of those, either.)

With the original roasts, roasters and roastees were basically peers. Entertainers of more or less the same background and age, with genuine affection for each other, possibly good friends in "real life," etc. "Among friends," people might say things that sound mean-spirited, but it's really not.

The modern ones, I think, are more like "Round up whatever comics you can for this TV special," most of whom probably have no particular tie to, or even affection for, the roastee. So you get a lot of comics just dusting off whatever "make fun of Star Trek" material they have, and/or coming off as genuinely mean-spirited because they don't even *know* the guy.

I've always meant to check out the relatively recent roast of Chevy Chase, as I've heard it's a remarkable train wreck, one where not only did the roasters lack any affection, but most of them actually genuinely *hated* Chase.

Gotta throw in my snaps for Patton Oswalt as well. I have seen his live stand-up act many times here in San Francisco, he's done a lot of good tv writing, and he's really great--and yes a true geek. His Comedy Central show last year, "The Comedians of Comedy," which featured he and a couple of his comic friends (Brian Posein, etc.) on a comedy road trip, was great TV.

Watching Shatner fry is hilarious, and the retro footage only adds to it all. Affection isn't the point of a comedy central roast; even thinking of the idea is like a bad Family Guy Joke.

"So let's make a show, Carl. Let's take a celebrity, and sit them in the center of a room full of all of these well-known other celebrities, who insult the shit out of them"

"Don't you think that would just be... I dunno... sad? And maybe pathetic?"

"Nooo, nooo. It'll be all right in the end. We'll make them pose with cake or something."

But the point is to laugh at how incredibly insulted said celebrity is, and William Shatner's roast is intensely hilarious. Plus, good old Kirk does get in a few jabs at the end. Failed try, but a good one.