Some of the newer roasts I’ve seen are incredibly dirty and vicious. I think it was a Denis Leary roast I saw a couple of months ago where a comedian said to Courtney Love: “Jeez, you look bad. In fact, right now Kurt Kobain looks better than you.”
Heh. This made me remember about my mom. She was raised in Minnesota by a rather starchy, law-abiding family, and she didn’t find many classic comedians funny at all. Charlie Chaplin? “All he does is kick people in the rump.” Milton Berle? “A man dressing as a woman isn’t funny.” Jackie Gleason? “He’s just a drunk.”
But have Carol Burnett or Ruth Buzzi smack someone with her purse and my mom was in stitches.