In an age where "Family Guy" and gangsta-rap are considered mainstream entertainment, and 12-year-olds know the names of porn stars, seemingly the only shocking move left for a comedian is to give up and go back to rehashing Bob Newhart material.

Then, while switching channels one night, you stumble upon Comedy Central's roast of Pamela Anderson and sit in amazement as in-your-face comic Lisa Lampanelli not only rams through the offensive line but sprints 100 yards past.

While everyone else at the roast made predictable jokes about the Pam/Tommy Lee sex tape and Courtney Love's on-camera meltdown, Lampanelli went for the jugular in racial humor so extreme we can't use it here. But most of the audience, and ostensibly the folks at home, laughed at Lampanelli's equal-opportunity skewering of race, sex, age, religion, body type and sexual orientation.

Dubbed the "Lovable Queen of Mean," by The New York Times, Lampanelli is a 46-year-old with soccer-mom looks who doesn't fit the mold of what people expect from a female comic. The Toronto Star called her "Howard Stern on estrogen, a cross between Archie Bunker and Totie Fields, a comedy dominatrix who takes no prisoners."

After killing on Comedy Central roasts of Chevy Chase, William Shatner, Jeff Foxworthy, Flavor Flav and Anderson, Lampanelli headlines the Wiltern in Los Angeles on Saturday. If you're easily offended, you're in for a rough night.

"People know why they're coming to see me," Lampanelli, who lives in suburban Connecticut, said the other day. "They know I'm going to talk about racial things, sexual stereotypes, the bridge collapse. If you don't like it, you shouldn't have come."

You might think the equally foul-mouthed Sarah Silverman would be seen as competition, but Lampanelli has nothing but good things to say about the comedian.

"I'm totally psyched about Sarah's success because it's 10 times harder for good-looking women comics to make it," said Lampanelli, who names Don Rickles as her primary comedic inspiration (her Web site's address is www.insultcomic.com).

Lampanelli didn't leap into the comedy scene overnight. Before hitting the clubs, she studied journalism, working for Popular Mechanics, Rolling Stone and Spy magazines. At age 25, she pursued a master's degree in teaching until she realized she didn't like kids and that the whole process reminded her of her 12 years in Catholic school.

Then, she began working as a DJ who talked back to her audience. More than a decade of open mics and club gigs followed.

Her popularity skyrocketed in 2002, when she was the only female comedian invited to skewer Chase on the N.Y. Friars Club Roast on Comedy Central.

"I admire her for having the balls to say what's on her mind," said Sonny Fox, host and program director of satellite radio's XM Comedy channel, where the female comedians are often way raunchier than the men (XM also has a G-rated comedy channel, Laugh USA, which airs routines by the likes of Bob Hope and Newhart).

"There have been comedians before her, like Rickles, who had a dominant attitude on stage, but they were male. There are very few female comics with that attitude. I appreciate the nerve it takes to get up there and go against the grain. She's a trouper. She goes out there and faces all kinds of audiences and punches them below the belt."

Everyone is fair game in Lampanelli's routine: men, women, blacks, whites, Catholics, Jews, people with disabilities, people with eating disorders.

"Growing up, I didn't even know comedy existed," she says. "As a kid, I used to watch those Dean Martin celebrity roasts on TV. It was so funny how they were all acting like friends but saying mean stuff about each other. I thought that was cool. But I didn't even watch other stand-ups until I started doing it myself."

Lampanelli - who tones down her material to be a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" - will be seen this Christmas in a VH1 comedy/musical special starring Larry the Cable Guy and next spring in the Owen Wilson comedy "Drillbit Taylor." She appears on Stern's Sirius satellite radio morning show about every six weeks.

Says Lampanelli: "When Howard and Rickles say you're good, you know you're doing something right."

—Fred Shuster (818) 713-3676 fred.shuster@dailynews.com

Lisa Lampanelli plays at The Wiltern this Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $39.75 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster or by calling (213) 480-3232.

 Click here for a list of more comedy clubs in the city.