Q: Could there have been a more natural way for the torch to be passed from “The Mike Tyson Zone” to the “Charlie Sheen Zone” than Iron Mike being a roaster for the Charlie Sheen Roast?
— Cameron, Cleveland

SG: Wait, the torch was passed? Did you watch that roast???? I came away thinking that Tyson wasclearly a bigger wild card than Sheen. Think about the concept of the Tyson Zone: It’s when a celebrity reaches the point of insanity that you’d believe any story about them no matter how crazy it is. After watching Tyson alternately giggle and heckle his way through the first 20 minutes of that roast with that deranged smile on his face, had you paused the telecast and read me a list of insane possibilities like, “Tyson is going to see someone eating a hamburger in the audience, then charge into the audience and take that person’s hamburger by force,” “Tyson is going to get horny and it’s going to take six people to pull him off Kate Walsh” or “Steve-O makes an Islam joke and Tyson beats him to death with a microphone,” I would have believed it.

Meanwhile, how can Sheen steal the “Zone” title when words like “lucid,” “coherent” and “in control” could have described his appearances at the 2011 Emmys and his own roast? As far as I’m concerned, Tyson faced the biggest threat to his “Zone” domain since Michael Jackson, fought it off and reestablished himself as our defining “Zone” celebrity. It’s like boxing — you have to beat the champ to take his title. Sheen went head-to-head with Tyson and lost. Long live the Tyson Zone.