If you haven't heard, or seen, by now, Mike "The Situation", from the MTV show "Jersey Shore", bombed something awful at the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. It's like "Requium for a Dream". It's really disturbing, it'll stick with you well after you've watched it, but everyone needs to see it once.
But, to be ever the most marginally defensive towards The Situation, why was he even there? Doesn't it really shine a light on the bigger issue which is how stupid the Comedy Central roasts have become.
Now I don't mean roasts. I mean the Comedy Central Roasts. Specifically since 2002.
From 1998, the year CC first started airing roasts, to 2002, CC simply aired The Friar's Club Roasts on their network. Since 2002, CC has been organizing and airing their own roasts with no affiliation with The Friar's Club.
The Friar's Club Roasts were very well done. But since 2002, it's been kind of a shitshow due to some fundamental issues. And for the most part, I think it has to do with the fact that none of these people are truly affiliated and it's something that CC just throws together to fill an annual time slot.
Look at the Dais for this year's roast of Trump. The Roast master is Seth McFarlen. Comic Roasters include young comics like Whitney Cummings and Anthony Jeselnik. Celebrity Roasters include, the aforementioned, The Situation and Snoop Dogg. You can't tell me that any of these people know or, quite possibly, have even met each other before (outside of the comics with each other).
And The Situation is the epitome of this and why it's ridiculous. And I don't mean his horrible performance itself. Listen to his jokes. Now to be real, writing content wise, some of his jokes aren't that bad. But also real, there's no way you can actually believe he wrote, or maybe even saw until that night, any of the jokes he delivered that night. So, essentially you have a nobody celebrity, roasting people he doesn't know or has never met, with jokes he didn't write, written by somebody who probably has never met the roasties, or let's face it, the roaster.
This creates two major problems which just ruin these current roasts for me.
First, they're not really that funny. Donald Trump has weird hair, bangs young chicks, and says you're fired. I get it. I'm also bored hearing 10 different people tell different versions of those 3 jokes for an hour. But again, it's not their fault. Those three things are probably all that the roasters know about Trump. Because they don't know him. They know as much about Trump as we do which is pretty much the caricature of him that we see all the time on TV and in the news. For counterexample, The Friar's Club still does roasts, even though they're not on TV anymore, and the latest person they roasted was Quentin Tarantino (Note: They also roasted Donald Trump...in 2004). It was hosted by Samuel L. Jackson and included roasters like Uma Thurman and Eli Roth. Now, would I rather see Eli Roth or Anthony Jeselnik talk for an hour. Jeselnik. I've seen him live and he's amazing. But roasting Tarantino...I'd pick Roth. Sure Jeselnik is hilarious, but Roth is going to give more insightful, genuine, and just more original jokes when roasting Tarantino. Give Jeselnik his own CC presents or hour long special. But watching him make fun of a stranger is just a waste of my time and his talents.
I think this base joke phenomenon was never more evident than at the CC Roast of Larry The Cable guy. The show consisted of a barrage of the hackiest redneck jokes you've ever heard from your Uncle at Thanksgiving. But it's Larry The Cable Guy. Isn't the most hilarious thing about this guy that his whole Redneck persona is a fucking sham! The only roaster to nail him truly is Greg Giraldo (flip to 3:05 for the Larry stuff).
But as great as that is, it brings about the other thing I don't like about these new roasts, they're kind of mean.
The motto of The Friar's Club Roasts have always been, "We only roast the ones we love." And if you watch old clips of those roasts (even the ones that aired on CC), I think that's apparent most of the time. You're watching people from the same social club, in the same or similar professions, who in many cases are good friends, busting each others balls for a couple hours. It's funny AND fun. But watching strangers just pummel people they don't know for base and stereotypical reasons is not funny, and kind of embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch. As hilarious as Giraldo was, it's quite obvious by his send off in the last 20 seconds that he not only doesn't know Larry but doesn't really like him either. He doesn't even attempt the generic, "I joke, but I think you're nice," bit. And while I staunchly agree with everything Giraldo says during his time, especially the end, and love him, both as a fan and comic, for saying it, I just don't think that's what a "roast" is. Again, I agree and find it hilarious. But I think it'd be more appropriate if he just did what David Cross did.
So, in the end, if you thought Mike "The Situation's" performance was bad, just realize how much he was set up to fail in the first place.
The Situation is horrible though. He's such a man-whore douchebag that he fucked Lisa Lampanelli AND filled his mouth up with vinegar so he could help her clean up afterward! BAM! Roasted.
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