The Comedy Central Roasts

The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget

The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner

The Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff

The Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen

The Comedy Central Roast of Roseanne

The past week I couldn't decide which TV series to start, so while I took my sweet ass time deciding, I figured I'd check out some of the wildly popular Comedy Central Roasts. I'm not going to rate them or list all of the roasters, because every person has only about ten minutes and everybody has their own unique styles which appeal to different people. I happened to love Gilbert Gottfried and Greg Giraldo, but I really couldn't stand Jeffery Ross or Andy Dick, other people might feel just the opposite. The purpose of a Roast is to take someone you admire and totally make fun of them, to say every thing you've ever wanted to say to them and make everyone laugh at them. What I don't understand about the way Comedy Central does their Roasts is instead of loading the dais with that person's friends, family, and co-workers, they only let them invite a couple of familiar faces, and then fill in the rest with stand up comics who don't even know these guys. I suppose it's less painful for the roasted, having a bunch of people they don't know talking shit about them, but it also leads to everyone repeating the same obvious jokes, take Roseanne for example. We all know she's getting old, she's fat, and her voice is irritating as hell, but that's pretty much all the comics had to say about her and it got old, pretty quick. The lines are hilarious and obviously written by some very talented comedians, but personally, I'd like to see the roast-ed's friends and family come up on stage and say everything they ever wanted to say. The Comedy Central Roasts are funny, entertaining, and considerably more vulgar than the old style Dean Martin roasts, but they lack something the Dean Martin roasts had and that was their own personality. Comedy Central's Roasts are mass-produced, often use the same comedians, and often get old after half an hour, that being said, they're still pretty damn funny and I can't believe some of the things that came out of their mouths.