Jackson Booth-Millard
A night of comedy where everyone sends you up for the long career you have had in whatever your field of entertainment is, i.e. take the Mick of you, first emerged in America, and then it went to Britain. This show, hosted by Kathy Griffin, has the victim being rude and crude comedienne, TV personality and actress, Joan Rivers. The comedians and stars roasting her in the show included Tom Arnold, Aladdin's Gilbert Gottfried, Carl Reiner and Donald Trump and Melissa Rivers, and look out for Don Rickles, Lily Tomlin, Anna Faris, Tom Green and Jon Lovitz. Rivers' comeback after all the funny banter was my favourite part, almost no limits to her comments and her promise not to retire from show business. Joan Rivers was number 28 on 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, and she was number 40 on The Comedians' Comedian. Very good!
Doug FM
Other than a few misses (Tom Arnold for one) I thought this was one of the better roasts. I'm not sure what standard you other guys are holding this up to. I'm guessing you thought the Flavor Flav roast was the funniest thing you've ever seen.Greg Giraldo wasn't funny? Please, he was one of the better roasters and he had the intimidating task of going first. Carl Reiner was a bit weak but he's a comedy legend (not for standup) and most of the shows on TV now wouldn't be there if it weren't for him. Gilbert Gottfried was out there as usual and hilarious and Joan Rivers' rebuttal at the end was one of the best I've seen on Comedy Central.
ecidnac
**Spoilers Ahead ** I've seen all of the Comedy Central Roasts and this had to be the worst. They assembled a motley crew of some of the least funny people they could find plus a few roast regulars like Greg Giraldo and Jeff Ross who (thankfully) always deliver but (unfortunately) weren't enough to negate the awfulness. Roast regular Lisa Lampinelli was unfortunately absent. The material was predictable (plastic surgery jokes, old age jokes, Jewish jokes) and this group, including Joan herself, beat those dead horses into an unrecognizable pulp.Entertaining bits were few and far between. Several of the guests (like Tom Arnold) bombed and Gilbert Gottfried's graphic sexual narrative was awe-inspiring in its awfulness. Whitney Cummings took the "completely unfunny female comic" spot usually occupied by the equally unfunny Sarah Silverman and fit the bill just as well, except for some reason she feels compelled to shout her set. Joan Rivers - true to herself - wasn't funny at all either and her proclamations that "comedy needs" her were disconcerting. The entire program was just painful to watch.I've seen all of the roasts and I've even laughed at all of the roasts but I spent the majority of this 90-minute crapfest cringing and being thankful for commercial breaks. In the words of Gilbert Gottfried (spoken during the credits), "the highlight of the show was when they said it was over". Indeed.Pass on this one; watch instead the hilarious roast of William Shatner (the best), the funny roast of Jeff Foxworthy, or even the mediocre-yet-entertaining Flavor Flav, Pamela Anderson, David Hasselhoff, or Larry the Cable Guy (who deserved his evisceration and then some) roasts.
Orville Joe
I am usually a fan of comedy central roasts and loved the Pam Anderson, Shatner, Larry the Cable Guy, and Flav roasts. However, as I was watching this roast I was extremely disappointed.Jeff Ross and Greg Giraldo who usually deliver great performances were pathetic. I got a smile out of a few of Ross's jokes, but Giraldo did not make me laugh even once. Tom Arnold, Carl Reiner, and Mario Cantone were painful to watch. Arnold got fake laughs from the audience; he messed up his lines a few times and actually started over each time to correct himself. Carl Reiner was just filler and did not make a single joke, actually I didn't bother to watch his whole performance because after 5 minutes he hadn't said a single meaningful thing. Mario Cantone did Joan Rivers impressions which I thought were annoying, none of them funny. Roastmaster Kathy Griffin's attempts at humor were very cheap, like 5th graders just learning cuss words. In my opinion, only Gilbert Gottfried delivered, but his voice is so slow and irritating that I had to pause every now and then; He talked for a good 10 minutes straight without pausing. He did however have the best jokes.At this point I was not even interested in watching the rest; Brad Garrett, two other women and Joan Rivers. I find that Joan Rivers has such a hideous face, and also do not find her even remotely funny. Save yourself an hour and watch another one of the comedy central roasts, this one is horrible!