Review of Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Sammy Davis Jr.

Perhaps the all time funniest roast was for Dean Martin's fellow Rat Pack member Sammy Davis, Jr., most of the usual cast present, as well as a few surprises. Freddie Prinze, then riding high on his breakout success CHICO AND THE MAN (on which Sammy had guested as himself two months prior to this broadcast) gets things rolling, asking Sammy to fix him up with a star, Moms Mabley: "honey, you can keep them black guys cos they's all chicken, what I need me is a hot Puerto Rican!" Wilt Chamberlain discusses Sammy's height disadvantage when walking through Central Park: "he doesn't want to get mugged by a pigeon!" Milton Berle asks Sammy if he's comfortable sitting in his seat: "I could get you another phone book!" Dionne Warwick compares her childhood with his: "I started singing gospel at the age of 6, and he started breaking the commandments at the age of 7!" Rat Pack favorite Joey Bishop explains how he inspired Sammy to become a Jew: "he wanted me to turn colored, I said go to hell! I got a bad back, I can't march!" Jan Murray talks about how Sammy usurped Sinatra's signature song "My Way," because it was a better fit for his background, Frank Gorshin again bringing down the house with his Burt Lancaster impression. Don Rickles is his usual politically incorrect self: "you live in my neighborhood, I'll live in yours, right Sam? Are you crazy?" Best of all is the incomparable Foster Brooks, representing the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, offering his greetings to superstar Sandy Duncan Jr.: "the excitement you create in an audience is incredible - there they sit, spellbound, wondering if someone in your entourage is ransacking their room!" A most humble and good humored roastee, Sammy concludes on a serious note about being the butt of jokes for the evening: "the day they don't make fun of you, that means they don't give a damn about you."