The Roast - Television Tropes & Idioms

No fools were pitied during the filming of this event.

"We only roast the ones we love."

In comedy, The Roast is a specific kind of comedy performance. Typically mixed with a banquet, the Roast is, at its basest, where one comic (or other kind of personality/celebrity) is brought on stage to be made fun of by a collection of his/her closest friends. The standardbearers for the Roast are the New York Friar's Club, who have been roasting celebrities since the early 1950s. Only rarely have these been seen by the rest of the world, either in video offers seen on late-night TV or through Comedy Central, who got the rights to broadcast a few of them in the early 2000s. Another series of roasts were hosted by Dean Martin in the 1970s (he was the roastmaster for all of them), and recently revived thanks to those late night Infomercials by Guthy-Renker.

While it may look and feel spontaneous, it really isn't. The Roastee has just as much say in the creative process as the producers, including choosing a Roastmaster (Master of Ceremonies who fires the first salvos at the Roastee and introduces the other guests) and other Roasters. Comedy Central roastees include Denis Leary, Jeff Foxworthy, Pamela Anderson, William Shatner, Flavor Flav, Bob Saget, Larry The Cable Guy, Joan Rivers, David Hasselhoff, Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen and Roseanne Barr.

It is an enormous honor to be roasted (especially by the Friar's Club) because, as the Friar's Club motto states, they only do this for the ones they love. Unless you're Chevy Chase (then they really hate you).

Common Tropes:

But Seriously Folks: The greater majority of the Roasters' routines ends with several endearing remarks about the Roastee.
- Lisa Lampanelli actually subverts this. She'll say the endearing remarks in full honesty, but use them as a setup for a final zinger. About Jeff Foxworthy, she mentioned how he was able to become the most successful comic in the world without being dirty, mean, or sleazy, ending with "Thanks for f***ing it up for the rest of us." Similarly, when mentioning that Pamela Anderson was able to be such a beautiful, good-hearted class act, ended with, "Knock it off, bitch, you're making me look like a foul-mouthed c***.
Cluster F-Bomb
Crosses the Line Twice (and thrice, four times, five times, six times...)
- And crosses it very very far. See: Ted Danson in blackface at Whoopi Goldberg's roast, and Gilbert Gottfried's 9/11 joke at Hugh Hefner's roast.
Drowning My Sorrows: The Pamela Anderson roast is notorious for Courtney Love spending the length of the special completely smashed.
- Especially because she claimed repeatedly that she'd been clean and sober for over a year, which led to more than one person saying what amounted to, "Honey, if you're not on drugs, you should be."
Epic Fail: Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino notoriously crashed and burned at the Trump Roast, and was almost booed off the stage (Jeff Ross actually had to go up and defend him long enough for him to finish.)
Even Evil Has Standards: A lot of the Comedy Central Roasters (especially Lisa Lampanelli, Whitney Cummings, and Anthony Jeselnik) are highly unapologetic for the number of times they cross the line. However, when Marlee Matlin was on the Donald Trump roast, most of them said that she was such a class act, they wished they'd gone easier on her. (This despite the fact that Marlee took it all in stride and, frankly, was able to give as well as she got.)
"Funny Aneurysm" Moment: Plenty over the years but notably any Too Soon joke ever made by Greg Giraldo.
- One of the worst was at the Larry the Cable Guy Roast. Lisa is talking about how successful Larry is and mentions that he makes $250,000 a night. She repeats the number a few times, then says, "I just wanna see how many times I have to say that before Greg Giraldo kills himself." He actually looks at her and says "Once more."
- At the Charlie Sheen Roast, comedian Patrice O'Neal seemed legitimately upset that people were making fun of his diabetes. He went on stage and said he was "dying". The Roast aired in September 2011; O'Neal died in November 2011 at the age of 41. Crosses with Harsher in Hindsight and Tear Jerker since O'Neal and Sheen had never met prior to the Roast.
- At the William Shatner Roast, Betty White joked, "It always makes me laugh to see Artie Lange onstage...knowing that I'm going to outlive him." (1) This was before Lange's suicide attempt in 2010, and (2) Betty White wound up outliving two other roasters (Greg Giraldo and Farrah Fawcett).
  - At the same roast, Artie Lange himself joked, "It's the whiskey talking; I'm going right to rehab after this." He did two years later.
Genre Savvy: When the crowd would boo at a particularly nasty joke, the Roaster would remind the crowd just what they were watching. (Once, when Lisa told a joke that elicited more cringing than laughter, she point-blank said "It's a roast, assholes!"). Greg Giraldo and Lisa Lampanelli definitely acknowledge this the most.
Greg Giraldo: "It's a fucking roast, groanie, groan, groan."
Goshdang It To Heck: The ones on television are edited - sometimes heavily - for syndication. There's still plenty of swearing and lewd jokes, but they look tame by comparison to the original.
Hilarious in Hindsight: In the 2011 roast of Donald Trump, roast master Seth MacFarlane joked that, "I smoked a lot of pot, and clearly don't give a sh** about this show. I'm kind of the perfect host for this roast or for the Oscars." This was before he was chosen to host the 2013 Academy Awards.
The Lancer: The Roastmaster.
Pet the Dog: During the Roseanne Roast, when she was doing her "shred the other roasters" rebuttal, she turned to Amy Schumer and said, "Thanks for doing nothing to stop that rumor that women aren't funny." Schumer seemed genuinely wounded by this, so Roseanne then genuinely thanked her and said she enjoyed her set.
Quirky Miniboss Squad: The other Roasters.
Recycled Script: Some of the other comedians such as Lisa Lampanelli have gone on record of saying that Comedy Central has some pretty talented writers who can write some pretty good material for the roasters who aren't professional comedians, but there are still a few old jokes that get dragged out at each roast. At Pamela Anderson's roast, she told drag queen Lady Bunny the classic line "I always knew you were crazy, but in that dress, I can clearly see you're (your) nuts" and to the famously-smashed Courtney Love "It's nice to see her doing stand-up comedy. I always knew she could do comedy, I just didn't know she could stand up."
Running Gag: Each roast has its fair share, but one running theme among the majority of the Comedy Central roasts was ragging on Greg Giraldo (before his death) by insinuating that no one knew who he was and mocking his lack of success.
Self-Deprecation: The Man/Woman of the Hour is the last to go; they often roast themselves as well as the people who roasted him/her.
- Usually there's the occasional roaster who spends more time ripping into themselves more than the person they're supposed to be roasting. Carrie Fisher and Ellen Burstyn at the Roseanne roast spent more time talking about their past drug problems and tendency to date younger men, respectively, than they did roasting Roseanne.
So Unfunny It's Funny: There's usually one roaster (usually not a professional comedian) brought in with the intent of being hilariously awful.
- Notably, Norm MacDonald fell squarely into this during Bob Saget's roast, typically pairing it with Don't Explain the Joke. While the audience took a few of these to start laughing, the other roasters were dying.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Sometimes, the other Roasters.
Start My Own: After its contract with the Friar's Club expired, Comedy Central started doing its own series of roasts.
Too Soon: As the Comedy Central versions have shown, Lisa Lampanelli is very fond of this.
- Lampshaded to hell and back after Greg Giraldo's death.
- Calls of this got Gilbert Gottfried to abandon most of his planned set after a failed 9/11 joke... and instead shift to one of the most infamous versions of The Aristocrats ever broadcast.
- Jeff Ross infamously made a James Holmes joke at the Roast of Roseanne Barr, which was deleted from the broadcast.
With Friends Like These: The reason the roastee never gets offended by the hilariously awful statements is usually a combination of having a good sense of humor, knowing what to expect, and most of all, being good friends with the roasters and being able to make a few jokes at each other.

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