Roast 'em alive: George Takei does William Shatner, FTW!

(tags humor, vulgar, gay, homosexual, video, television)

George Takei, the Asian face of the original Star Trek, came out of the closet and publicized his homosexuality when it was already passe to do so, at least, I felt it was muted (It was not muted but politically timed). Then this awesome swiped video comes out: Comedy Central's The Roast of William Shatner, monologue from George Takei (thanks The Malcontent, via GayGamer, via Kotaku). Where there was muted openness is now flamin' turn it up gayness. I was shocked, seriously, mouth dropped instead of "he said gay, haha" laughing. Such brilliant comedic timing, too. Still, it was refreshing and exhilarating to hear Takei cut down Shatner's acting and high-horse aloofness with simple, direct, emotionally charged profanity, even losing control over his normally silky, radio-perfect voice. "<bleep> you and the horse you rode in on!"

I am searching for Shatner's final words from this roast, because it seems that Shatner has a good rebuttle. But I haven't seen it yet.

I suppose it was humor, but it was more mean-spirited zingers, crudity and straw-man arguments. That's a roast, alright. I think the medium destroyed the message for me, because the context was lost, the build up from stale roast monologue from the others was cut. In retrospect, I had to remember that Takei was cutting himself down at the same time ("Your acting is the only thing that makes me want to gag") and propping up some of his achievements. Takei starts off by saying "The first..." in reference to Shatner and Star Trek co-star Nichelle Nichols first ever interracial kiss on TV, but he was interrupted with a homoerotic kiss from ... who? Some other guy?

In any case, when you think of good male voices, don't you think of James Earl Jones ("sow his royal oats") and George Takei (now a fixture for Howard Stern radio show)? Takei is re-igniting his entertainment vitality and I hope we see more of him, but not pigeon-holed into the cranky old self-derisive gay man.