Roast of Alec Baldwin

[up_the_hampipe]

New Comedy Central roast on tonight. Here's yer line-up: Robert De Niro, Blake Griffin, Caitlyn Jenner, Chris Redd, Jeff Ross, Nikki Glaser, Caroline Rhea, Ken Jeong, and Adam Carolla. Wow.

Here's Blake Griffin making all the Caitlyn Jenner jokes you might expect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjn056u087M

Here's Alec Baldwin's daughter teasing him over the infamous voicemail (yikes!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7pULDlPE6I

Caitlyn Jenner telling a joke, I think? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uWNfs6dJxU

Probably won't need to see much else, but hey just letting ya know!

[Twed]

Woo! Billionaires! What a good penis.

[Famous Mortimer]

As the roasts have gone on, and fewer and fewer comedians are on it, my interest in them has waned.

[popcorn]

Here's Alec Baldwin's daughter teasing him over the infamous voicemail (yikes!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7pULDlPE6I

I reckon they should call them "teases" instead of roasts.

[Noodle Lizard]

Robert De Niro, there.  I mean, it'd be sad enough watching anyone in their late 70s have to sit there and politely laugh as Caitlyn Jenner's Pussy jokes fly around, but it's especially grim knowing that this one coulda been somebody.  He coulda had class, he coulda been a contender.

[cliggg]

Even when there was mostly comedians on the dais at roasts I still found them boring. The host has there monologue at the start and it's "This person is so gay that...." "The next person is so fat that...." "This one is so old that...." "That scandal this person had amirite?!" etc.
Then the first roaster gets up and does their jokes about the same topics, as does every other roaster for the next 2 hours or so while the audience guffaws with shock every single time like they haven't been listening to variations of the same jokes all night. Of course there are some really funny jokes in there but they are few and far between.

[up_the_hampipe]

As the roasts have gone on, and fewer and fewer comedians are on it, my interest in them has waned.

It's the same amount of comedians and celebrities they've always had, they're just not the names you'd usually recognise from the classic roasts.

[ajsmith2]

Should have got Trump in to shake things up. (with his presence if not his material). In fact, if Hillary had won in 2016 and Trump had returned to showbiz land as intended, he probably would be doing this chummily joking along with the rest.

[TheBrownBottle]

The best I've seen remains the Chevy Chase one - it's one of the few where there's a real venom coming from the roasters to the roastee (due to Chase's abrasiveness generally & before the start of the show).  Chase is by all accounts a massive, massive twat so it adds to the frisson. 

Most of them tend to be a light ribbing.

[Beagle 2]

"Alec you're a right cunt you mate"
"Haha I am okay with this"

[up_the_hampipe]

Most of them tend to be a light ribbing.

Haha, not really.

Apparently Triumph The Insult Comic Dog made a surprise appearance, so I will have to watch that part at least.

[Famous Mortimer]

It's the same amount of comedians and celebrities they've always had, they're just not the names you'd usually recognise from the classic roasts.

Having seen them all, I disagree. Looking back at the roast of Chevy Chase, one of the earliest of the Comedy Central ones, the only real non-comedian on stage was Beverly D'Angelo. The Alec Baldwin one was hosted by a non-comedian, and had Robert DeNiro, Caitlyn Jenner, Blake Griffin, Caroline Rhea, his daughter Ireland, and Adam fucking Carolla. Rob Lowe's (the last one before Baldwin's) had Peyton Manning, Ann Coulter, Ralph Macchio, Jewel, and David Spade. And Jimmy Carr, too.

It's possible they just edited the non-comedians out of the older broadcasts, I guess? But it really seems to have changed.

[up_the_hampipe]

The Chevy Chase one was loaded with comedians because very few of his actual celeb 'friends' wanted to go. The Rob Lowe roast had Nikki Glaser, David Spade, Jeff Ross, Jimmy Carr, Pete Davidson and Rob Riggle, that's over half the dais. This one has 6 comedians (including Triumph). You look at many of the famous roasts of the past 15 or so years, that's the usual ratio, unless the honouree is a comedian or is friends with lots of comedians (i.e. Franco).

[Famous Mortimer]

"Unless the honoree is a comedian or is friends with lots of comedians".  I mean, if you're going to handwave away most of the history of the roasts, then sure, you're right.

[Twed]

I bet they all agree what is off limits before it happens and lawyers are involved. Awful
If I was being roasted I would give somebody permission to chop my head off live. Do it properly.

[up_the_hampipe]

"Unless the honoree is a comedian or is friends with lots of comedians".  I mean, if you're going to handwave away most of the history of the roasts, then sure, you're right.

I wouldn't say most, I'd say some. Pamela Anderson, William Shatner, David Hasselhoff, Flavor Flav, Justin Bieber, Rob Lowe, Bruce Willis, Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, Hugh Hefner. Fairly sure they're not comics.

[Noodle Lizard]

I bet they all agree what is off limits before it happens and lawyers are involved. Awful
If I was being roasted I would give somebody permission to chop my head off live. Do it properly.

If I remember correctly, Trump's only hard limit was people implying he had less money than he (says he) does.  That struck me as weird considering how petty and sensitive he is about any criticism.

[mr. logic]

I bet they all agree what is off limits before it happens and lawyers are involved. Awful
If I was being roasted I would give somebody permission to chop my head off live. Do it properly.

Norm Macdonald tells a story about the comedians being told backstage that jokes about William Shatner's dead child being off limits and them all groaning.

[up_the_hampipe]

If I remember correctly, Trump's only hard limit was people implying he had less money than he (says he) does.  That struck me as weird considering how petty and sensitive he is about any criticism.

It was jokes about his bankruptcy mainly, I recall. But the roasters still ignore those rules. At the Trump roast, Jeselnik said "you've been happy to embarrass yourself on Saturday Night Live... and the casino business". It was apparently off-limits to joke about Mike Tyson's rape conviction when he was at the Charlie Sheen roast, but Amy Schumer still called his face tattoo a "target for pepper spray".

[Sin Agog]

Alec Baldwin's stipulations were pretty chill.  His only commandment was that none of the roasters exaggerate and say his face quadrupled in size.  Tripled was fine.

[up_the_hampipe]

Watched the whole roast so you don't have to. It was a lot better than some of the recent ones, but still a very mixed bag. Comedy Central have uploaded Nikki Glaser's whole set, which was by far the best of the night https://youtu.be/3pGQlIMliwI

[rasta-spouse]

How are the jokes distributed? De Niro had bad material written for him, it wasn''t just his delivery that tanked it. Whereas Blake Griffin, with an ok delivery, no natural talent, had some funny lines.

Carolla probably wrote his own gags, and it showed.

[Famous Mortimer]

How are the jokes distributed? De Niro had bad material written for him, it wasn''t just his delivery that tanked it. Whereas Blake Griffin, with an ok delivery, no natural talent, had some funny lines.

Carolla probably wrote his own gags, and it showed.

Griffin has form - he's taken part in actual comedy club roast battles (probably not with his own material, but still) and has held his own, I think.

[up_the_hampipe]

Griffin has form - he's taken part in actual comedy club roast battles (probably not with his own material, but still) and has held his own, I think.

He went up against Jeff Ross and they let him win because he's Blake Griffin (Ross probably wrote some of his jokes as well). They awarded him with "Roast Rookie of the Year", Pete Davidson's reaction to it is funny https://youtu.be/ZuYTtKZUkJc?t=1059

[Sin Agog]

Is there footage of all those classic historical roasts you hear about, like the one where Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks' dad died onstage right after his set?  You hear about them all the time, but I don't think I've ever seen one.  I'm wondering if the formula was different back then to some of the more generic jokes even the best roasters tend to lean on now.  "I'm really looking forward to seeing our next roaster...die...and not like die onstage...but actually die." So much of that kinda half-assery to fill in time.  Used to quite like the Howard Stern roasts back in the day because there was always backstage soapy shit bolstering it, like when Sal completely went over the line on his boss's missus and Stern did the most grimacey laugh in response.

[C_Larence]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_UN2S8SasY

is this historical enough

[Sin Agog]

That was gold!  So every roaster was like Norm at Saget's roast? Also, was that Orson Welles up there on the very left?  Class.

Guess Sinatra was a mean, impish fucker.  Heard Griffin Dunne tell a story recently about how Sinatra evaluated his mum as being too fine a dame for his dad, so when he clocked them at a restaurant he paid the waiter a thousand dollars to go up to Dunne's dad and thwack him in the face.  The mortified waiter apologised profusely in advance, then planted him one right in the kisser.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

How are the jokes distributed? De Niro had bad material written for him, it wasn''t just his delivery that tanked it.

I will almost certainly never watch this, but De Niro's comic timing during Rupert Pupkin's stand-up set in The King of Comedy is actually pretty good. He's convincingly slick and slightly above average, a competent hack. I can only assume that's he grown a bit rusty in the last 37 years.

[typeforty]

Is the full Chevy roast online anywhere?

[Bennett Brauer]

The Rob Lowe roast had Nikki Glaser, David Spade, Jeff Ross, Jimmy Carr, Pete Davidson and Rob Riggle, that's over half the dais.

One of my memories of that roast is the non-comedian Peyton Manning being much funnier and more self-assured than the professional comedian Jimmy Carr. I guess Jimmy couldn't find the level of the room.