To get back to the original question, I bought a Crockpot BBQ Pit at Wal-Mart out of curiosity and cooked a pork butt using the same rubs and so on that I would use outdoors and it did a very nice job (I’m not a big fan of "smoke flavor" so didn’t really miss it). You could, indeed, probably do the same thing in the oven or even in a regular crock pot possibly, but this was easy and straightforward and I’m actually looking forward to trying it for other things and will certainly use it again next time I want pulled pork (I made enough the first time to freeze several meals worth, though).