The N.Y. Friars Club Roast of Chevy Chase

This was almost hurtful to watch, I think the rumor has gotten around enough that Chevy was a "little" bit difficult to work with at times but this was completely out of hand and as we all know from the articles, he did not handle it well.

I understand the reasoning that in a roast, the roastee has to develop a thicker skin before walking out there and that some of the stuff might get a little bit harsh, but usually there's a sense of joke to them in the voice of the person delivering the puns, in this case, everything said sounded almost hostile. With no humor added at all.

I personally love Chevy as an actor and an artists because I think he's one of the funniest actors/comedians of his time. I didn't like however, watching the poor guy tear up behind his glasses because people are speaking to him with a sense of cruelness.

This roast never should have happened. A seemingly endless string of unfunny B-List comedy hacks were just downright mean. Roasts are supposed to be harsh but warm. That is easy to do when you know and love the roastee. But since none of those speaking knew anything about the man, it was just plain rude.

I have to give Chevy props. He actually stayed for the whole thing. I would have walked off the stage in the first five minutes. He had to sit there and listen to the unfunny, hurtful, and completely inaccurate portrayal of his career and life. When it was finally over, he stood up, looked directly at the camera, and said, "That hurt." He was absolutely crushed.

It was a very unfortunate evening for Chevy and everyone that knows and loves him.

This roast is infamous for only being aired once due to the mean spirited nature of the jokes and clear discomfort of Chevy Chase. His previous roast had gone well, but this one was filled with people he didn't know, which lead to the jokes being more mean and personal. Apparently it caught him so off guard that he was sent into a depression after.

You do get some second hand embarrassment watching this but overall it's quite entertaining with some funny roasts. There are some awful segments though like Lisa Lampanelli who I had to skip through because it was so bad. While Chevy is known to have a bad reputation and some might say he deserved this, there are some "jokes" that go too far such as blatantly making fun of his drug problems in a distasteful manner. But it's worth watching as an entertaining piece of lost media and there are some hilarious parts, you can find it by searching on Reddit and Internet Archive.

Chevy has the reputation of being hard to work with in the industry. This roast was a reflection of how they felt about him.

The line up was less than stellar. No one of any importance agreed to come. Well except Al Franken, Lorraine Newman and Steven Colbert.

After all the fun Chevy said two jokes and ran. He obviously didn't want to be there. So i wonder how he was roped into being the Roastee?

Watch it to watch Chevy squirm. The elephant IS in the room and no one is paying attention.

To sum up. Careful how you treat people on the way up to stardom, because you'll meet them on the way down.