Comedy Central Roast


Comedy Central Roast is a series of celebrity roast specials that air on the American television channel Comedy Central. The first official Comedy Central Roast premiered on August 10, 2003. The network typically airs one or two roasts every year. Eight to ten people are invited, and they each roast one another before finally roasting the titular subject of the roast. As of 2019, seventeen roasts have aired. Targets of roasts have included musicians, actors and comedians. Since 2010, Comedy Central affiliates outside the United States have occasionally produced their own roasts; twelve such roasts have aired so far, in five countries.

History

Between 1998 and 2002, the American television channel Comedy Central produced and televised the annual roasts of the New York Friars Club, which the club hosted since 1950.
After the original five-year agreement expired, the network began producing its own roasts in the same spirit. The first, featuring roastee Denis Leary, aired on August 10, 2003. His roast was the most watched program in the channel's history, excluding episodes of South Park.
Some roastees have stated that certain topics are off limits. Pamela Anderson, for example, prohibited jokes about her Hepatitis C infection. Joan Rivers disallowed jokes about her daughter Melissa, William Shatner asked that the death of his wife not be mentioned, and Donald Trump prohibited jokes about him not being as wealthy as he claims he is. Others, like David Hasselhoff, have imposed no limits on the topics. Although Charlie Sheen initially agreed to no restrictions on his roast, he later said during an interview with Jay Leno that he requested jokes about his mother be edited out of the broadcast.
During Sheen's roast, Steve-O made the joke "The last time this many nobodies were at a roast, at least Great White was playing". This was a reference to The Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, that killed 100 people on February 20, 2003. It was removed from broadcast on Steve-O's request.
During Denis Leary's roast, Lenny Clarke, a friend of Leary's, said there was a carton of cigarettes backstage from Bill Hicks with the message, "Wish I had gotten these to you sooner." This joke was cut from the final broadcast. During Roseanne Barr's roast, Jeff Ross compared fellow roaster Seth Green to James Holmes, the mass murderer responsible for the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting. The joke was not in the broadcast program. During the roast of Justin Bieber, multiple jokes about the passing of Paul Walker, co-star and close friend of fellow roaster Ludacris, were cut from the official broadcast.

Roasts

Recurring roasters

The table below features any roasters who have appeared on multiple Comedy Central Roasts. As of the Alec Baldwin roast, the most frequent roaster has been Jeff Ross, who has appeared in all but the first two roasts, for a total of 15, and has yet to be a roastmaster. Greg Giraldo has the second-most appearances, with a total of eight roasts from 2005 until his death in 2010., Seth MacFarlane is the most frequent roastmaster with three consecutive turns in the role.

Venues

The following table features the venues where multiple Comedy Central Roasts were filmed. As of the Alec Baldwin roast, the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California has hosted the most roasts, namely the roasts of Pamela Anderson, David Hasselhoff, Charlie Sheen, Justin Bieber, and Rob Lowe.
RoastsCityVenueRoastee
5Culver CitySony Pictures StudiosPamela Anderson, David Hasselhoff, Charlie Sheen, Justin Bieber, and Rob Lowe
3New York CityHammerstein BallroomDenis Leary, Jeff Foxworthy, and Donald Trump
2BurbankWarner Bros. StudiosBob Saget and Larry the Cable Guy
2Los AngelesCBS Studio CenterWilliam Shatner and Joan Rivers
2Los AngelesHollywood PalladiumRoseanne Barr and Bruce Willis
1Beverly HillsSaban TheatreAlec Baldwin
1Culver CityCulver StudiosJames Franco
1Los AngelesOld Warner Brothers StudioFlavor Flav

Cancelled roasts

In 2008, a roast for the musician Willie Nelson was planned to coincide with the release of his box set, One Hell of a Ride, but was ultimately cancelled, according to Jeff Ross.
A roast for the musician Kid Rock was announced in November 2010 and scheduled for January 2011, but was later replaced by the Donald Trump roast. Rock's roast was rescheduled for August 2011, but was replaced again, this time by Charlie Sheen's roast. Kid Rock agreed to doing the roast if it were filmed in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, a condition that Comedy Central refused.

International

The following roasts aired on international Comedy Central channels:
Country/Region RoasteeRoastmasterOriginal air date
Africa
Steve HofmeyrTrevor NoahSeptember 24, 2012
Africa
Kenny KuneneJimmy CarrApril 28, 2014
Africa
Somizi MhlongoGareth CliffMay 7, 2018
Africa
AKAPearl ThusiFebruary 21, 2019
Africa
Khanyi MbauMpho PoppsAugust 8, 2022
Latin America
Héctor SuárezHéctor Suárez GomísMay 18, 2013
Netherlands

Awards and nominations