so called "comedy" roasts

i've heard of these "roasts" you yanks have spread to us over here but never really experienced them until last night when i caught the 2nd half of the charlie sheen one...

it had william shatner, steve-o and mike tyson and a bunch of people i'd never seen before.

anyway complete and utter wtf are hese things considered funny anywhere in the world?

and there was some proper backward old school racist stuff.

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yeah, it's like, not funny.

  On 10/12/2011 at 5:43 PM, BCM said:

yeah, it's like, not funny.

Yeah... these "roasts" have lost their meaning. Twisted by Comedy Central. They were used in the past to celebrate someone's career. Kind of like a Lifetime Award they give out at Award ceremonies. But instead of getting a trophy, you'd get your drug, alcohol, prostitution addictions made fun of.

  On 10/12/2011 at 6:08 PM, asymmetrical head said:

They were used in the past to celebrate someone's career. Kind of like a Lifetime Award they give out at Award ceremonies.

that's what i understood them to be... but these just seem like vicious attacks. they're not light heartedly poking fun but going for the jugular. that black guy on the charlie sheen one was getting seriously racist jibes like it was the 70's again and he's like "wtf? really? the audience is actually laughing at this? what decade am i in?".

this bitch (no idea who she is) trying so hard to shock everyone made a pretty low joke to steve-o about ryan dunn...

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no but these used to be very funny. they used to have good comedians making fun of everyone in the room. it has now turned into some sort of celebrity c-list thing. look up some of greg giraldo's roasts, he was incredible.

edit: i actually saw that amy schuer chick live once. i went to see dave attell and she was an opener. the room was pretty quiet for her and she didnt get many laughs. if she wasnt such a bitch i would have felt bad for her. i wanted to tell her that every one takes women comedians with a grain of salt anyway so just give up.

I agree with all the not-funny sentiment in this thread.

Everyone should just watch Norm Macdonald's roast of Bob Saget.

I watched all of these in one afternoon, the late Greg Giraldo was amazing, also Ross, the Shaq roast was something else. You just have to watch the real comedians do it otherwise yeah it's pretty lame.

U need to watch the Pam Anderson roast in order to appreciate these. Courtney Love was mad drugged out, and they went to town on her.

i love the charlie sheen roast where they make light humor out of domestic abuse.

it's quite a good laff

the flava flav roast is pretty excellent. ross, geraldo, and lisa lampanelli were all pretty hilarious. geraldo was in top form. he was the best.

i dont find this jokes timeless, they make u know stuff to get it

Roasts depress and vex me. I am terribly vexed.

as usual, colbert shows how it's done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7FTF4Oz4dI

  On 10/12/2011 at 9:20 PM, baph said:

Roasts depress and vex me. I am terribly vexed.

  On 10/12/2011 at 6:56 PM, dr lopez said:

Everyone should just watch Norm Macdonald's roast of Bob Saget.

this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d99gfCGAUXc

  On 10/12/2011 at 10:02 PM, joshuatxuk said:

  On 10/12/2011 at 6:56 PM, dr lopez said:

Everyone should just watch Norm Macdonald's roast of Bob Saget.

 

this

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d99gfCGAUXc

this was posted on watmm and was my intro to 'roasts', someone had to explain it to me.

seen bits of other '' roasts. americans being americans. the british version of it was the most embarrassing thing ever. so wrong.

yeah, jeffery ross knows how this is actually done. they're supposed to consist of light-hearted ribbing, not shock/mean contests. and norm macdonald is the king of anti-comedy.

bob saget should join the ku klux klan

  On 10/13/2011 at 2:39 AM, jules said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6nt9DBbSTc&feature=related

I really like the Comedy Central roasts, but the Charlie Sheen one was baffling. Between the racist jokes, Mike Tyson having a pseudo-meltdown, and the fact that almost all of the roasters weren't even comedians.

You need to catch a roast when it's real comedians. The David Hasselhoff one was pretty great. Yes it was still offensive (I don't recall it being blatantly racist though), but it made me laugh, unlike Mr. Sheen's.

I'm just a dumb American, but I find even the lamest CC Roasts mildly amusing.