I’ve written here before about my tendency to be clueless about popular culture; but I think that this is also an indictment of popular culture itself.
So, a roast for William Shatner, an actor who’s been around since before I was born… and the majority of the roasters are people I’ve never heard of before.
You’d expect that if the roast was populated by his contemporaries and compatriots, I’d have known them. But who the heck are:
- Greg Giraldo?
- Jeff Ross?
- Artie Lange?
- Patton Oswalt?
- Lisa Lampanelli?
Like the F-list people that make their living appearing on such high-quality clip shows as “I Love The 80s”, the producers seemingly scooped these people up from the sidewalk in front of the studio.
Or they found them on the wing of the plane…
If it makes you feel better, I have an unhealthy obsession with popular culture and even I haven’t the foggiest who any of those people are.
I’m with Gene and Mac, I tuned in for a little while and was wondering who the hell those people were. I did recognize Andy Dick, who I find to be a completely loathesome reptile.
Shat’s problem is that he alienated most of the rest of the Star Trek cast; and Bones and Scotty are of course dead. I was surprised to see George Takei there because I’d heard that he absolutely refused to speak to Shatner.
What most repulsed me during the short period I watched was that it seemed to be less of a roast of Shatner than a string of Takei gay jokes, at his expense. I turned it off and went to my backlog of TiVoe’d shows
Yikes… not much into the comedy scene are you? Greg Giraldo was a regular on “Tough Crowd” on Comedy Central and has his own show there now. Jeff Ross is a fixture at roasts, along with Lisa Lampanelli, both of whom are considered “comedians’ comedians”… some of the best in the business. Their performances at the Pamela Anderson, Chevy Chase, and Hugh Hefner roasts are legendary. Artie Lange is on the Howard Stern Show (I think he’s still there… I have XM, not Sirius). And although I don’t like him alot, Patton Oswalt is huge on the comedy circuits these days.
Spend a few hours listening to the comedy channel on XM Radio and you’ll hear sets from all of them.
I wouldn’t call the F listers, as a matter of fact Patton Oswalt is probably one of the funniest people out there.
It also depends on where you look, Arti Lange has been with Howard Stern for years, yet if you listen to NPR everyday then you wouldn’t know that.
Jeff Ross (who I don’t care for) has been a steadly working comidean for years, you’d know him if you frequented Letterman or Leno.
Greg Giraldo had his own, and very smart, show on Comedy Central- which is probably the point, most of there people are regualrs on Comedy Cental who is very good at promoting iteslf.
I’m (cough cough) over 50 and haven’t heard of one of these people either. But then again. William Shatner. Is. A. Jerk. So finding friends was no doubt harder than they had anticipated.