Two of the celeb judges berated one guy for being blue in his roast. Aren’t roasts supposed to be blue? Or are the last few I saw televised on Comedy Central aberrations? They were swearing like wounded pirates.
I don’t know what a roast is usually like, but they’re much funnier when they’re blue, that’s for sure. I think I’ve seen all of the Friar’s Club roasts that Comedy Central has aired, and they’ve all been like that - plenty of bleeping, which in part reflects the fact that Comedy Central are total wimps. If the notes they’re giving the comics reflect that, I wouldn’t be surprised.
The poor guy even said he didn’t normally work blue, but dirtied up his roast because that’s what he thought he was supposed to do. I would have too, from what I’ve heard on the recent televised ones.
Well, the more recent Friars’ Club roasts have been pretty blue, reflecting the bluing of popular culture, I think. The older roasts–most of which hosted by Dean Martin, if I remember right, were characterized more by ribbing than by “obscenities.” Lucille Ball’s hardly likely to call Bob Hope an asshole.
But by the modern standard, the judges should’ve explained the rules before they deducted points for them.
But at least immunity wasn’t on the line. Even if it was clean, I don’t think he would have beat Alonzo (Sp?, I’m not even sure that’s his name).
Of the showdown, Gary wasn’t that funny, but I’m just glad he beat Ant. I really did not like him.
Oh, but how much fun would that roast be? :eek:
Had they known that their judges were “old school” (as much as I hate that term, it applies here), perhaps they wouldn’t have worked “blue”. Unless, of course, they aren’t familiar with past roasts*. However, one would think that comedians would know the history of the roast. It’s a classic form of comedy. If you want to be a professional comedian, shouldn’t you be familiar with all aspects of your craft?
*I apologize for the sentence fragment. I’m tired.
I think that those who don’t normally work “blue” were making a big mistake by doing so just because they thought that’s what they should do. You’re better off going with what you know.
Alonzo was the funniest but it seemed kind of pointless if the winner didn’t get immunity too. When they announced the immunity went to the roastee I thought it would have been hilarious had they decided to roast Gary.
As for the showdown, I was very glad to see Ant go. Aside from being annoying and scheming, he wasn’t even the least bit funny.
Well he got to be a friar… so I’d say that may be better than just immunity ;).
True. And Alonzo doesn’t even need immunity. No one is going after him.
It’s a different world since 2/1.
I had thought Ant was funny and was glad he got chosen to be in the house. Now I’m not sure I would enjoy a full routine of his comedy, a little of Ant goes a long way. I ended up hating his personality, which may or may not hae been an act (I’m just a puppet, someone else is pulling the strings), so I’m glad he got booted.
I just love Jay London. To me, he is the funniest hands down. I want to hear a whole half hour set from him. Okay, I do wish he’d get at least some of the hair out of his face, but Gods is he funny!
My top three:
Jay London
Alonzo
Terry(?) the Italian–the mob retirement gift was brilliant!
I think I want Corey gone next. He knows nothing about his craft–he didn’t even know what the Friars’ Club was–and, more importantly, he’s not funny.
It’s Tammy Pescatelli, not Terry. She’s pretty good.
But whoever came up with the line, “Jay’s 40 years old and still has the body of a 16 year old…in his basement” is a genius.
I think they meant blue in the sense of gratuitously crass. A roast isn’t supposed to feel like bashing. It’s supposed to feel like friends all having a laugh together. It’s a fine line. Like Phyllis Diller said, it’s an art.
“Blue,” in this context, means obscene language.
A list of synonyms, under “foul,” from Roget’s:
abusive, blasphemous, blue, coarse, dirty, filthy, foul-mouthed, gross, indecent, lewd, low, nasty, obscene, profane, raunchy, scatological, scurrilous, smutty, vulgar
I’m torn between Kathleen Madigan and John Heffron. As of now, though, I want Heffron to win because I’ve already seen Kathleen on Comedy Central. And that one lady was right, he is cute.
I think the old timers reacted negatively because the newcomers had not “earned the right” to use foul language at the Friar’s club. I turned to Mrs Blather at the beginning of that segment and said “who is Norm Crosby”, but I still cringed when Gary asked “who the f**k is Norm Crosby?”
Well those Friars’ Club Roasts on Comedy Central are a helluva lot more crass than anything that Gary came up with. Rich Little has a ginormous stick up his ass. I felt bad for Gary and I agree that his showdown set wasn’t great, but some of his qualifying sets were terrific. I was worried that the audience was going to confuse gay with funny. Luckily, they didn’t.
As an aside, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a competition where people put there creative selves so far out there for judgement. You’ve got to hand it to these people.
The Dean Martin Roasts were crappy copies of the Friar’s Club Roasts that were made for TV in the 70s. Of course they counldn’t do anything “blue” on network TV then. As far as I know The Friar’s Club Roast has always been dirty enough to make a long-shoreman blush and very mean spirited(think Ted Danson in blackface). The Roasts used to be for their own amusment during closed sessions of the club. Now they are making money off of the broadcast of them. See the performance of Jeffrey Ross at Drew Carrey’s Roast for a prime example of a good roasting.
I’ve haven’t been sold on a good number of the comics remaining (or the ones kicked off for that matter). I’m glad Ant was kicked out, his sets are kind of lame and are very one dimensional. To be honest with you, Gary wasn’t a whole heck of a lot better either. Both are funnier than Todd Glass though- man I’m glad that guy is gone.
Kathleen Madigan clearly wasn’t in her element in the roast. I still have her a solid second behind Alonzo Boden though. He proved himself one step above her with the roast, for me. The two of them, though, are a ways above Heffron who I have third. Jay London is different and I’m having trouble ranking him. His comedy isn’t my style but I can see the talent is there.