Last night, Comedy Central aired their Roast of James Franco. Taped a week earlier in Los Angeles, the event featured comedians and actors Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Sarah Silverman, Jeff Ross, Natasha Leggero, Nick Kroll, and Jonah Hill gathering to make fun of Franco and each other. While the centerpiece and the dais were filled with more respected celebrities than your usual Comedy Central roast, the 90-minute special was still just a collection of jokes on the same subjects being repeated over and over (this year’s big topics were “Jonah Hill is fat” and “James Franco is gay maybe?”). The far and away highlight of the night was Andy Samberg’s performance. Samberg broke from the format and did his segment as a tongue-in-cheek version of an overconfident roaster who couldn’t stop talking about how hard he was roasting everyone despite never really saying anything with his jokes. Harkening back to Norm Macdonald’s performance at the Bob Saget roast, Samberg’s ended up being a super funny bit and a nice intermission from the zillions of Jonah Hill fat jokes. Samberg’s SNL cohort Bill Hader also excelled by breaking from convention and instead came out as a character: a gravel-voiced, gray-haired man called The President of Hollywood.
Check out highlights from everybody’s roast performances below:
Seth Rogen
Andy Samberg
Bill Hader
Nick Kroll
Jonah Hill
Natasha Leggero
Jeff Ross
Aziz Ansari
Sarah Silverman
James Franco
