I know I’ve been Trekking out lately, but there’s still more to come: he’s being roasted on Comedy Central tonight. This will either be the funniest thing ever broadcast, or the most painful experience in the history of mankind.
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August 20th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
“the most painful experience in the history of mankind”? Worse than his “singing”?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7258896287489458266
For more pain: http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Shatnersings.htm
August 20th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Pain = William Shatner singing.
August 20th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Should be funny; Shatner’s pretty good at being able to make fun of himself and his image.
He won’t be able to hear them any over the sound of how awesome he is.
August 20th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
I’m so glad the Internet has preserved that “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” cover. That is the sort of torture which should not be forgotten.
August 20th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
The late Lorne Green from the TV show Bonanza could sing: “Ringo”.
Captain Kirk can’t sing a lick. Yet, both shows have a legion of fans to this very day.
August 20th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Not as funny as the Mike Nelson & Tom Servo commentary for Star Trek 5
August 20th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Ugh! Shatner had a hand in writing the script for Star Trek 5. I guess his writing is marginally better than his singing.
August 20th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
I actually have cd someone bought me with both Shatner and nimoy singing. It can be amusung at times.
August 20th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
I didn’t know they MST’d STV. Hmmmm, gonna find that now.
August 20th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
OK, let’s give credit where credit is due. “Has Been,” the album Shatner did with Ben Folds, is really good in a Ken Nordine kind of way.
J. D.
August 20th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
*OFFTOPICALERT* Yay I got side sweep bangs! ^_^ They’re so hot! *OFFTOPICALERT*
well I hope he doesn’t sing, once I heard it felt like a thousand daggers being dug into my skull! eehhh!! But he’s a pretty funny bloke. XD I can’t wait to see him tonight!
August 20th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
He’s certainly ripe material for roasting. I can’t wait to see it.
August 20th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
That would be interesting to find an MST-3000 episode using Star Trek V, especially considering the ST people never made such a movie. Why they would skip from IV to VI has always been inexplicable to me. Along the same vein, it’s too bad that there never was a sequel to Highlander…
August 20th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
To hear the Star Trek V commentary, hop on over to http://www.rifftrax.com/ (I have no idea how to URL in these blog entries) where you can pay to download commentaries by Mike Nelson and, for STV, Kevin Murphy.
(I’ve heard about this site, but have only now tracked it down…)
August 20th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Along the same vein, it’s too bad that there never was a sequel to Highlander…
wt ???? Highlander the movie lead to highlander the tv series – all 6 seasons (well 5 and a bit – as the main star jumped). This lead to the highlander spinoff Raven which only lasted a season – Amanda from the series with a human cop as partner. They stopped as the two main stars didn’t get on very well.
The highlander movie was followed by highlander 2 (god only knows why they keep on releasing a new version – it still sucks), then there was highlander 3 (which we can’t get on DVD), and finally highlander endgame (where the original highlander from the movie dies). The first was the best, while endgame needed more money, Curiously, the endgame dvd ends differently than the movie version. Seems they wanted to keep an imortal alive – just in case.
No sequel ? I think not. Maybe ‘no decent sequel’ ?
thanks
din
August 20th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Don’t worry, ABR. Some of us got it. It’s hard to make a joke like that without it whizzing by someone who can’t wait to correct your “mistake.”
August 20th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
I know people who *know* there was only ever one Matrix movie.
August 20th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Aside from the 4 letter words and dirty (aka sophisticated) jokes, I’ll give Betty White the trophy for that one. Farrah? Her 15 minutes of fame were over so long ago, the batteries in the clock won’t even take a charge any more… George Takei made the most (as did the rest of ‘em) about coming out of the closet, and Nichelle Nichols didn’t get near enough time…
Overall?
Ehhh…not bad…
August 20th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
ABR,
They skipped Star Trek VII too, made an excellent, near perfection, Next Generation movie and then they stopped. There was rumours of a Star Trek movie with a musical scene in it, where the main characters would zoom around in spaceships while singing, but fortunately that was just Internet chit-chat.
As for Highlander, how could you possibly make a sequel? “There can be only One” and he was it, he won the prize! They had painted themselves into a corner with no possibility of a sequel.
Stroke of genius with the casting though, I mean a French guy playing a Scot, a Scottish guy playing a Spaniard and an American playing a warrior from the Russian steppes.
August 20th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
I could have done without some of the racist jokes in the roast- no matter how post-modern they were meant to be.
August 20th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
I thought it was pretty funny, overall. Many jokes had me laughing really hard.
I thought it was really funny of him to do the roast, but of course he’s made a second (or maybe third) career out of making fun of himself.
As Mrs. Bad Astronomer said after it was done, "Is there nothing he won’t do?"
August 21st, 2006 at 8:25 am
Rumour Mongerer: There was only one Matrix movie. The same guys happened to come back for two rounds of high-budget fanfic, but there was only one Matrix movie
August 21st, 2006 at 8:28 am
Haven’t watched it yet. Looking forward to the several reruns that they will wind up doing of it.
The problem with the Comedy Central roasts are that they pretty much insist that most of the roasters be has-been comedy central comedians. Judging from the commercials, I’d assume that this is the same?
August 21st, 2006 at 8:57 am
Didn’t mind the roast at all — it did seem like they had a few too many “comics who need a paycheck”, but most of them were OK. A few laugh out loud moments (beware, there is a montage of Shatner singing, which is frightening and funny all at the same time). And they’ve already gone into endless reruns (the thing ran three times in succession last night, if my cable guide is to be believed).
And speaking of movies that don’t exist (I still wish I could get back the time and money I wasted seeing Highlander 2) — there are also fan MSTies of Star Trek V and Highlander 2:
http://www.eskimo.com/~rkj/MST.html … apparently they’re quite good, although I admit I have not seen them (just read comments on other sites).
August 21st, 2006 at 10:00 am
Useing the cartoon clips of Shatner and Nemoy from Futurama was a nice touch. The episode they were from was called “Where No Fan Has Gone Before”, and they got the entire casrt (minus James Doohan and DeForrest Kelley) to voice their characters. This is easally the best episode put out by Futarama, its worth it just to here William Shatners spoken word version of “Slim Shady”
August 21st, 2006 at 10:13 am
That is a great Futurama ep, but the best has to be “Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love?” The roast was great, Betty White killed. I knew she would, I’ve seen/heard some of her blue/near-blue humor before.
August 21st, 2006 at 10:50 am
It was very funny. Who is going to be next? Any predictions?
August 21st, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I’d like to see a James Randi roast.
August 21st, 2006 at 4:14 pm
I enjoyed the roast, admired Shatner’s ability to take a joke, had to explain George Takei to my companion, and also didn’t recognize some of the roasters. Maybe I’m sheltered. But all in all, I enjoyed the opportunity to watch something fun. Then today, on an online news service, I was confronted with a story about how it is irresponsible to watch trash on TV. Actually, it is about how we are being distracted by the media focus on JonBenet’s murder, from issues that are really important, such as the excesses of the federal government, and global warming, and the endless list of bad news.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082106E.shtml
But I think it’s important to take some time to have some fun once in awhile — maybe not to the exclusion of understanding issues that help us make good decisions, but I think it’s okay to enjoy life. So I am glad I indulged in some levity last night.
August 21st, 2006 at 4:58 pm
It’s a little different watching something diverting as opposed to 24 hour coverage of garbage by media news. I feel for JonBenet’s parents (well, her father now) but there are some slightly larger issues going on right now. Watching Shatner’s roast is a choice we can make, but if you watch MSM news you get precious few choices on what’s covered.
August 22nd, 2006 at 7:31 am
Great Roast! LArge cahonies displayed, to good effect.
GAry 7
August 24th, 2006 at 3:17 am
Just got around to watching the roast. Fantastic stuff. George Takei was probably my favourite roaster – he had me in hysterics. He was also on the receiving end (no pun intended) of some zingers himself…….it was good to see him take it all in good stride. Now is it just me, or can’t Andy Dick take a joke? Was it an act? The guy needs to lighten up.