Historical Roasts

I get that some people won't dig it. Much of the jokes are written in an old school vaudeville style and it won't land for most modern audiences. There's nothing wrong with that. Not everything is for everybody.

But I love this, my wife loves it and my kids do, too.

Everything from historical rumors and less publicized facts are brought out and laid out in a way that sticks. Kudos to the staff on making this and Netflix for having the guts to distribute. I hope they make more.

To the people who say this show is disrespectful: It's not. It's supposed to be a satire meant to make people laugh, especially since nowadays, politics have become too heated a subject to talk about peacefully. But then again, we live in an age where anyone can be easily offended by just one little joke to the point of sparking a controversy.

So anyway, this is a good show. This only gets seven stars from me because the jokes are hit or miss. Some joke I liked, others fell flat. But I was not offended by them because I understand this is meant to be a satire of the historical figures involved and a show that is supposed to poke fun at events both historical and current, which is supposed to be the aim of the comedy series. If you are offended by such portrayals, all I have to say is do not watch.

... it may have been excusable. Instead what we got was an amazing premise, MC'ed by the Roast Master himself, from a platform that doesn't seem short of cash to throw around, that somehow managed to deliver the most flaccid jokes I've ever seen on a major platform (believe me, it's not the "vaudeville" format that turns me off). On top of rarely landing an actual joke, the show is frequently punctuated by shoehorned political soapboxing that even when I agree with the sentiment, is not what I watch a roast for (Et tu, Ross?). The only way I can accurately describe the low effort performances and lazy cliches is by the show's embarrassing resemblance to the minion memes your aunts share on each other's Facebook walls.

Lots of bad reviews on this one. I have to 100% disagree with all the 1s and 2s. This was a wonderful idea and it was executed pretty well. I found the shots of audience members being unamused as part of the humor - you know cause humor is different for everyone and all that.... but yes there are episodes that are better than others.

The idea of doing a friars club style roast of famous historical figures AS other famous historical figures is actually a really fun idea. Getting a bunch of comedians, or comedian-adjacent-people, to put on an exaggerated character for half an hour can lead to a fun time and create some weird images. I would suggest that most people got interested in this by the trailer with a clip of Gilbert Gottfried as Adolf Hitler, it has the potential for great stunt casting and when it hits that potential it does something special. Seth Green as David Bowie or John Stamos as John Wilkes Booth are actual comedic highlights... everything else, no.

There are two big problems with this show, and one of them is Jeff Ross. I'm sorry, Jeff Ross isn't that good a comic. he has 5 jokes and edits them slightly for every roast and he is a horrible piece of casting. Its name brand recognition using a person with no brand recognition outside of this niche market of roasts and the fact that he walks out every episode and isn't a character just makes it a tonal mess.

The scripts were clearly written in an afternoon by two people who threw it together using set dressing and costumes that they borrows from a nearby community theatre. This is dumb but with some actual love, care and production values this could be something special. Instead it's just... mostly painful with sparks of brilliance that is begging to be let out. If they keep doing this, they need to put Jeff behind the camera, up the production values and work harder on the scripts... or, don't? Just, just don't make more of this.