Torching 2024: A Roast of the Year

Let me start by saying that I don't ever write reviews. Ever. This was just so bad that I had no choice.

I typically enjoy roasts, and there has never been a year more deserving of a good roast than 2024. Unfortunately, none of the acts were funny. None of them. Ms. Pat never disappoints, and somehow even she fell flat on her face. Even the live audience was unimpressed.

The ridiculous impersonators (P. Diddy, Biden, the Menendez brothers...) were unoriginal, unfunny props that were little more than a distraction from how badly the comics were bombing. Save yourself the headache and find something better to do with an hour of your time.

This has to be the worst roasting event I have seen in a while. The jokes fell flat and were not funny. They kept on falling flat and the host kept on talking up these so called big names that no one has heard off. It was pitiful and dreadful to sit through this disaster. Even poor John Stamos could not stop this runaway train that's going nowhere. I feel like people in social media have better humour and zingers. This bland and forced humour goes nowhere. There was no wit, humour and just cheap cracks that went nowhere. A roast is supposed to be funny and outrageous, pushing the envelope. The only thing I wanted to push was next on this show. Terrible roast by unfunny personalities.

I absolutely LOVE Sam Morrill and Tim Dillon, as well as Mark Normand but my god, their material sounds like it was from the staff writers of At Midnight. But for as lame as most of their stuff was, it never comes close to how pedestrian Jeff Ross consistently is. I used to love his stand up but anyone who loves comedy can guess his punchlines before he delivers them. Worst of all is his new gimmick of pretending that he has a joke so offensive that he shouldn't even do it. Then he does the joke (a Menendez Brothers joke) and it was truly awful. Not offensive or edgy. It was just dull and silly. Spare yourself the time waster on this and watch Hinchcliffe and Nikki Glaser on the Brady Roast.

I was ready to check out after the first 6 minutes but I felt it wouldn't be fair to write a negative review without finishing the show and giving the other comedians a chance. By the end I'm still holding this against Netflix though and probably Jeff Ross. The rest seem to be able to carry specials on their own so I'd like to hope they didn't write these jokes themselves. I find it hard to believe that the audience was laughing as hard as they seemed to at some of them. I'm pretty sure they took those clips from the two jokes out of the entire episode that were actually funny. The Biden impersonator was... interesting. Given the special's overall lameness I was bracing for another Trump so it was a fresh breeze amidst the comedy swamps of Dagobah. Featuring coked out John Stamos on drums trying a little bit harder to not appear coked out. Oh and to that 8/10 reviewer - please stop using ChatGPT to write your reviews, it's ruining the platform.

This Jeffrey Ross joke sums up Torching 2024: "Quincy Jones died this year. His middle name was Delight. That is also what he saw before he died." That's a joke an 8 year old would be proud of telling.

A room full of comedy writers decided something that stale was suitable for a Netflix special. Another comment said this show had 25 writers. It must've been 25 monkeys at 25 typewriters, except they didn't write Shakespeare; they wrote... this.

A few comedians fell back on their own stage material, so there were a few half-hearted laughs there, but most of the 2024 related "comedy" was dire. Shallow, cheap, and obvious dad jokes that people make while watching the news and quickly forget. The comedians should've worked this material over into their own voices, because it needed a second or third pass. The impressions of Diddy, Biden, and UHC CEO were a thing that happened, but again, it's all so corny that even Jimmy Fallon wouldn't pretend to laugh at it.

The one time I genuinely laughed is when a comedian called this the "Temu Tom Brady Roast." That level of self-awareness is commendable. The Tom Brady Roast brought roasts back to life in 2024, and Torching 2024 killed them. I wonder if this show saw Delight before it died?

Nope, still not funny.