Is it possible to call function.apply without changing the context?

If I understand you correctly:

                          changes context
                   |    n     |      y       |
accepts array    n |  func()  | func.call()  |
of arguments     y | ???????? | func.apply() |

PHP has a function for this, call_user_func_array. Unfortunately, JavaScript is lacking in this regard. It looks like you simulate this behavior using eval().

Function.prototype.invoke = function(args) {
    var i, code="this(";
    for (i=0; i<args.length; i++) {
        if (i) { code += ',' }
        code += 'args[' + i + ']';
    }
    eval(code + ');');
}

Yes, I know. Nobody likes eval(). It’s slow and dangerous. However, in this situation you probably don’t have to worry about cross-site scripting, at least, as all variables are contained within the function. Really, it’s too bad that JavaScript doesn’t have a native function for this, but I suppose that it’s for situations like this that we have eval.

Proof that it works:

function showArgs() {
    for (x in arguments) {console.log(arguments[x]);}
}

showArgs.invoke(['foo',/bar/g]);
showArgs.invoke([window,[1,2,3]]);

Firefox console output:

--
[12:31:05.778] "foo"
[12:31:05.778] [object RegExp]
[12:31:05.778] [object Window]
[12:31:05.778] [object Array]