R.I.P Comedy Roasts (1950-2026)
W. Kamau Bell from Who's With Me?
Thank YOU for being a free subscriber to Who’s With Me? If you really like it, become a paid subscriber. Or if you just kinda like then share it with someone. On this post the comments are open to all. As always. Be kind. Rewind.
Hey, everybody. This is a long one. I had a lot to say. If you want to skip to the part about the Kevin Hart roast, scroll down. I labeled the sections. - WKB The SizzleOn the season finale of Saturday Night Live that aired this past Saturday, Weekend Update hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost did one of their most popular recurring segments. It’s called “Joke Swap.” In the segment, Jost and Che write jokes for each other, put those jokes in the prompter, and each of them have to read the jokes, live on air, without ever having seen them. Suffice to say, each of them revel in making the other say inappropriate things. Often Che makes Jost tell jokes that frame Jost as a racist. Che also loves having Jost tell jokes that feature Jost saying outlandish things about Scarlett Johansson, Jost’s wife. On the other hand, Jost put jokes in Che’s mouth that turn Che into a sexpest and a traitor to Black people. The funniest part is seeing each of them read the prompter and gasp at what they know they are about to say. The audience’s greatest pleasure is seeing the two highly trained professionals struggle live on camera. The most important ingredient is that we all know that Che and Jost are friends. We know that it is all in good fun. The friendship also lets us know that, as offensive as some of the jokes are (AND MANY ARE VERY OFFENSIVE), these two aren’t going to ruin their friendship over writing a joke that goes “too far.” As an audience, we get the privilege of watching good buddies roast each other. “Joke Swap” only works as well as it does because of their longstanding friendship. Watch at your own risk.  W. Kamau Bell asks, "Who's With Me?" is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The Steak, Part 1: A History of Comedy RoastsComedy roasts originally began at the Friars Club in New York City in the 1950s. Founded in 1904, the Friars Club was originally a private, (white) men’s organization. It was created by Broadway publicists who gathered together to exchange notes. They would occasionally honor Broadway luminaries (again, only white or white-passing men) with a fancy dinner. It was a way to raise money for whatever cause they were supporting. Soon the Friars bought a building, incorporated, and invited all sorts of artistic types to join the club. Eventually their ranks included Broadway actors, musicians, TV and movie stars, and, most importantly, stand-up comics. (Still only white men.) By the 1950s they changed the usual stuffy and boring dinner into a comedic roast of the guests of honor. The point of the roast was to gather the guests’ friends together and have them lightly rib them, as if to say, “Don’t get too big for your britches!” In 1955, the Friars admitted their first non-white man, and of course it was Sammy Davis Jr. As this was a private club, you can assume that all of the guests knew one another. At the very least they were acquainted with one another. I’m sure there were agreed-upon, if maybe unspoken, rules. It also helped that the evening was private, so the roasters (many of whom were famous) could get away with saying things that they would never say in public. This was, in fact, a big part of the allure. Everyone could let their hair down or, rather, take their toupees off. Because they were, of course, all MEEEEEEEEEN.
The roasts quickly became popular. A Friars Club eventually opened in Beverly Hills. Hollywood soon did what Hollywood does. “This is fun! HOW CAN WE MAKE MONEY???” Starting in the 1960s, TV had fully taken off and needed more content. The roasts were irresistible to a TV executive. They were evenings filled with A-list comics and their A-list Hollywood friends. The roasts began airing during NBC’s Kraft Music Hour. By the mid-’70s, they had moved to CBS and become fully institutionalized on the show Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. Hosted by pretend-drunk Dean Martin, these roasts aired until the mid-’80s. You can see some full episodes on YouTube.  These roasts were star-studded affairs, led by the same comedians who had been doing them off camera at the Friars Club. While the roasts were, of course, heavily sanitized for TV (Keep those toupees on!) the subject matter and style of the jokes were the same. To roast someone is to say fundamentally inappropriate things about that person to that person. Since these roasts generally featured cisgender, heteronormative dudes that meant that racism, sexism, stereotypes, and homophobia typically fueled the jokes. If Frank Sinatra was on the dais (and he often was), then his friend Don Rickles was absolutely going to call him a mobster. Your average white roaster was going to make sure that the audience understood that every Black person on the stage (from Slappy White to Wilt Chamberlain) might steal your wallet or your wife or your wife’s purse. Although, again, these people were all friends with or associates of one another. Showbiz was a smaller circle back then. The stereotypes might have been ugly and coarse, but they didn’t hit that hard since all involved were friends. While there were women onstage during these televised roasts, women were not admitted into the Friars Club as members until… wait for it… no, really, wait for it… 1988. Because TV was so different then, the roasts didn’t make any kind of splash in the media. You either watched them or you didn’t. If you didn’t watch them, you never thought about them. I was alive during the Dean Martin roasts and I have zero memory of them. I don’t remember anybody talking about them. Good, bad, or indifferent. TV was so much simpler then. You rarely felt forced to have to reckon with a show that EVERYBODY WAS WATCHING!  The TV roasts quietly went off the air in the mid ‘80s, until the nascent basic cable network Comedy Central brought them back in 1998. Comedy Central took a format that was cheap and easy to produce (rent a theater, book a celebrity guest, and stock it with hungry up-and-coming comedians) and turned the roasts into content. I have no memory of money being raised for any cause. (I could be wrong.) Marc Maron has told the story of how, when he was on the Comedy Central roast of Chevy Chase, it was clear that Chevy was upset that he was mostly being roasted by young comics he didn’t know. Chevy kept his sunglasses on for most of the evening and generally just looked stricken, especially during Maron’s set. The evening was so bad that Comedy Central never aired it again. Looking back, that was probably a sign. The first five Comedy Central Roasts were a co-production with the Friars Club, but the following events were produced without the Friars Club’s participation. Comedy Central turned the roast into a showcase for their young talent and made them less about honoring the guest. Charlie Sheen’s family can’t make it? It’s okay, we have Seth MacFarlane and Jon Lovitz. Comedy Central started booking the roasts based on whatever celebrity was having a big moment in Hollywood, whether that moment was good or bad. Truthfully, they probably preferred if that person was having a bad moment. Not criminally bad, but notoriously bad. Of course Comedy Central booked Donald Trump during his NBC Apprentice days. According to roaster and comedian Anthony Jeselnik, Trump allowed jokes about anything except “any joke that suggests Trump is not actually as wealthy as he claims to be”. Looking back, that was probably a sign. While the televised roasts of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s had removed a key element of the event (privacy), The Comedy Central roast era removed another key element: friendship. The comedians who were hired to roast the celebrities approached it more like target practice than camaraderie. It became more about comics making a name for themselves with how clever and biting their jokes could be, instead of honoring the guest. For the most part, these comics were playing for TV execs and the audience at home. Many comedians’ careers did take off after appearing and writing on the roasts: the aforementioned Anthony Jeselnik, Jeff Ross, Lisa Lampanelli, Amy Schumer, Patrice O’Neal (RIP), Greg Giraldo (RIP), and (gulp) Tony Hinchcliffe, to name a few. The Sizzle, Part 2: The Kevin Hart RoastThe last Comedy Central roast was in 2019. They roasted Alec Baldwin. (ANOTHER SIGN!) Then in 2024, Netflix, the new center of the comedy universe (and maybe the actual universe), decided it needed content and realized that it was cheaper and easier to make a comedy roast with an A-list star than it was to make a movie with an A-list star. Netflix also raised the stakes (and, more importantly, the viewership) by deciding to air the roasts live. Netflix imported many of the comics that had made the Comedy Central roasts. Now, instead of these comics just trying to make their names in front of America, they were playing in front of the entire world, neigh, the known universe. They were not going to be concerned about anyone’s feewings. To quote Stanley Tucci’s character from the original The Devil Wears Prada, it was time to “gird your loins.” The roast of ex-NFL quarterback Tom Brady was the debut. As Netflix wanted the most eyeballs at one time for as long as possible, the roast ran for three hours! Three hours of jokes about Tom Brady’s ex-wife Gisele Bündchen, their kids, his ex-teammates, Tom Brady’s lack of a human persona, and whatever else the assembled roasters could find by strip-mining the Internet for Brady’s vulnerabilities. Nothing was off limits… except when Jeff Ross made a joke about Brady’s former boss, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Jeff made a joke about Kraft’s 2019 arrest for soliciting prostitution at a Florida massage parlor. It was a story that made national news. Tom Brady wasted no time in rushing to the mic to tell Ross, “Don’t say that shit again.” It was a galling moment that revealed where Tom Brady’s true love lay. Make fun of Brady’s family, fine, but leave his precious business associate alone! It is important to note that the joke was not at Brady’s expense. It was at Kraft’s expense. Trump’s uncrossable line was money. Tom’s uncrossable Trump line was Kraft.  In the wake of the recent Netflix roast of Kevin Hart, many are wondering what Hart’s uncrossable line was. There did not seem to be one. There have been articles going around about jokes that were cut from the replay of the roast. It seems to me like most of the jokes were cut because they already had plenty Kevin-Hart-cheated-on-his-wife jokes. Tom Brady even did one. Comics also made jokes about Hart’s willingness to do anything for money. They made jokes about Hart’s dead dad’s substance abuse problems. At a trim two hours and 51 minutes, these themes were not just the beating of a dead horse. The horse was beaten, processed, and turned into glue. This seems like a good time to tell you that I hate comedy roasts. I would never want to be a part of them in any way. I don’t want to ban them or make them illegal. I just want them to happen somewhere… over there… away from me. But that’s impossible these days. Even if you had no intention of watching the Kevin Hart roast, now that we live in a monoculture, you can’t really avoid it on your newsfeed or on your social media algorithm, especially if you–like me–follow pop culture and Black stuff. When a piece of pop culture content dominates like the Kevin Hart roast did, it also makes mainstream news.  The fundamental difference between the Tom Brady roast and the Kevin Hart roast is the level of white supremacy, specifically the number of jokes relying on anti-Black racism as the punchline. Kevin Hart’s roast was, of course, way Blacker than Tom Brady’s. In addition to Hart, Kevin’s roast featured Na’im Lynn, Regina Hall, Katt Williams, Sheryl Underwood, Teyanna Taylor, The Rock, Lizzo, and, weirdly, NBA player Draymond Green. Those are all Black people. There were also assorted Black folks onstage who didn’t roast Kevin, including Tiffany Haddish. There was Blackness onstage and in the live audience of the Kia Forum. That means that classic roast jokes featuring Black stereotypes were on full display. Black comedians and white ones both made these jokes, however the consensus is that many of the white jokes felt lazy and hackneyed. The old school roasts were a circle of friends. These new roasts are a circular firing squad. These jokes were written to go viral, not because they were funny, because they were edgy.
Shane Gillis, a funny comedian who likes to play footsie with MAGA, told a joke in his opening monologue that was clearly aiming for virality. “Kevin Hart is so short that they’re gonna have to lynch him from a Bonsai tree.” Who is the “they” in that joke? Why is Kevin Hart being lynched in that joke? The only part that makes sense is that Kevin Hart is short. Once Shane saw the muted reaction in the room, he quickly attempted to distance himself from his own joke. “That was three weeks of deliberation on that joke. Look, I understand how serious the word ‘lynch’ is. But ‘Bonsai’ is so funny.” A short joke wrapped in the legacy of the United States’ terrorism of Black people!
Worse than that joke, for me, was all the attention that the roasters gave to comedian Sheryl Underwood. Sheryl, who is best known from her stint on CBS’s The Talk, sat onstage while comedians made fun of her general appearance and her complexion. It just seemed weird, especially with Regina Hall sitting up there. It felt like they booked Underwood because they had already written the jokes. The jokes needed a target, and they were too afraid to go after Hall. Underwood was also treated to jokes about *heavy sigh* her husband who took his own life. More than one comic did a joke about the tragedy. (Isn’t one enough? As a comic, wouldn’t you toss your suicide joke once you saw someone else do it? Just for originality’s sake?) When I heard the first one, I had to pause the show and ask Google if this was a real thing. It was. Underwood’s husband took his own life in 1992. He struggled with mental health issues. Yes, 1992 is a long time ago, so Underwood has probably processed it, but also, WHY DO JOKES ABOUT IT? It’s not like it is a thing that we all know about her. Unlike Robert Kraft’s “happy ending,” it did not make national news. It’s not even something that she is known to joke about. It screams of, OH WOW! LOOK WHAT I FOUND ON SHERYL’S WIKIPEDIA PAGE! THIS IS GOLD! After the roast, Underwood did press appearances to say she was fine with the jokes. As happy as I am to hear that, it is the broadcasting of the jokes globally and the force-feeding of them into our souls that I take issue with. In the kind of incredible timing that only a comic could truly appreciate, after Sheryl Underwood had spent days saying she was fine with the jokes about her dead husband, Netflix announced that her next special would debut on the streamer. Shock of all shocks, it will be produced by Kevin Hart. Underwood certainly deserves a Netflix special, but is that what she had to go through to get it? The “joke” that has made the biggest impact from the roasts is one by Tony Hinchcliffe. I’m sorry to have to remind you of who Tony Hinchcliffe is. Tony is a comedian who only has a career because he is under the Joe Rogan umbrella and his particular brand of comedy rests on the specific brand of white supremacy that Donald Trump has injected into our culture. Tony’s most famous for doing a stand-up set at then-candidate Trump’s unlabeled Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Here is Tony’s most quoted “joke” from the event: The joke caused so much controversy that even Donald Trump backed away from Tony in the wake of the rally, saying, “I don’t know him, someone put him up there.” Tony briefly disappeared before slowly coming back… completely unapologetic. Then Trump won, which wiped out the controversy. Netflix eventually signed Tony to a big deal, because Trump and Trumpish behavior were now good for business. Take it from me, if Trump had lost, Tony does not get a Netflix deal, and Tony is certainly not booked for the Kevin Hart roast. Which means Tony doesn’t get to tell this “joke” that Netflix sent out to the known universe. Tony couched the joke as a compliment. “The Black community is so proud of you… right now George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.” When you watch the actual clip, you can see that Tony stumbles right before he gets to the part of the joke where he condemns George Floyd, an innocent Black man that Minneapolis police murdered, to hell. It’s almost like Tony’s soul grabbed his throat for a second.  Kevin Hart laughed in response. To be fair, Kevin Hart seemed to laugh at all the jokes that night. Maybe he was being polite. Maybe he thought it was a part of his job. Maybe he just thought every joke was funny. George Floyd’s brother, many activists, and many Black people in general did not think it was funny. In Minneapolis, activists held a press conference to make it clear that condemning George Floyd to hell was not only gross, it also made ZERO sense in a roast of Kevin Hart. It was especially hard for them considering that Kevin Hart made a point of showing up at George Floyd’s memorial service in Minneapolis in 2020. Even stand-up comedians have come out against the joke. The list includes famous comedians who certainly know Kevin Hart, like D. L. Hughley, Lil Rel Howery, and Godfrey. There were certainly moments of the kind of friendly frivolity the original Friars roasts intended. Katt Williams, Teyanna Taylor, Na’im Lynn, and Regina Hall were on point, but the evening was weighed down by a mercenary coldness that is also characteristic of Trump’s America. When I saw these comedians speaking out, it reminded me of something else I noticed when I watched the roast. When you looked at the dais, there was a notable absence of some of Kevin Hart’s true comedy peers. Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes, Steve Harvey, and D. L. Hughley were not up there. Eddie Murphy, who is a member of the Netflix family of comics, was not there. Michael Che would have been great for the evening. Apparently, he was scheduled to be there but canceled at the last minute. In classic Michael Che fashion, he let his Instagram account do the talking.
I think we may have cracked the case, gumshoes! Every TV show has writers. Roasts are no different. Ultimately, the people who said the jokes are responsible for the jokes they themselves said, but you would hope that in the big year of 2026, Netflix and Kevin Hart would understand the need to hire a room full of Black writers. Trust me there would still be jokes filled with all the roast tropes, including anti-Black racism. That’s what roasts are for. But I have to believe somebody Black would have said, “Ummm… ‘lynching’? No.‘ George Floyd’? No… And maybe only one suicide joke?” The Friars Club’s trademark lapsed in 2021, and in 2024, the physical building was foreclosed upon. The seminal club now only exists in the memories of the surviving members. It feels like the public airing of comedy roasts would be better as memory, too. But don’t worry about Netflix. They’ll be fine. Saturday night, around the same time Michael Che and Colin Jost were making fun of each other on SNL, Netflix was airing an MMA fight between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, two ex-fighters whose last fights were 10 and 17 years ago, respectively. Because Netflix needs our eyeballs, not our respect. WHO’S WITH ME?W. Kamau Bell asks, "Who's With Me?" is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
San Diego come see me THIS WEEK May 22-24
Check out me out on the Past Due podcastIt is hosted by Anne Marie Cox and my friend Open Mike Eagle. It was a delightful time.  BIG ANNOUNCEMENT ON WEDNESDAY!Here’s a hint. Watch your inbox or your app on Wednesday morning, May 20. You’re about to get a lot more Who’s With Me? content. For the low, low price of FREE!
Register to Vote & Support Mahogany MommiesIn California, we have a governor’s race coming up June 2. Los Angeles has a mayor’s race coming up that same day. It is a mess out here of commercials and social media ads. In the middle of it all I found out that I was blocked on Instagram by one of LA mayoral candidates, ex-and-future reality TV show villain Spencer Pratt. I made a joke about Joe Rogan supporting him (which he did), and apparently Spencer didn’t like the joke. How’s he gonna be mayor of LA if he can’t handle my comedy roast? Anyway, make sure you are registered to vote, wherever you are. You’ll need to vote eventually. Check Your Voter Registration Here use code WKB for 20% off MahoganyMommies Comedian Gina Yashere’s Roast ThoughtsThe great comic Gina Yashere shared her thoughts on the roast. Listening to her gave me more inspiration to write. Go see her when she is in your area. W. Kamau Bell asks, "Who's With Me?" is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You’re currently a free subscriber to Who’s With Me from W. Kamau Bell. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. But in the spirirt of the season, I’m allowing comments from everyone on today’s post! This one is too important to paywall.
© 2026 W. Kamau Bell
|
