Celebrity Roasts?

[UKking]

Could someone enlighten a poor Brit here on the meaning of the word 'Roast' in this context?

Right now, I imagine someone cooking a really nice chicken dinner on a quiet Sunday evening, with all the trimmings. Then they invite a random celebrity.
I'd watch that.

[Willravel]

Roast means they make fun of the celebrity.

[Jetée]

The hosts put the invited celebrity in the proverbial "hotseat", grilling him/her on all their feats(failures) throughtout their lifetime by exchanging "burns", or good-mannered insults upon their being to honor them.

[vanblah]

Originally Posted by Jetée

The hosts put the invited celebrity in the proverbial "hotseat", grilling him/her on all their feats(failures) throughtout their lifetime by exchanging "burns", or good-mannered insults upon their being to honor them.

At least that's the way it used to be when Dean Martin and crowd would host the roasts. Now-a-days it's all stupid, scatological humor.

[pig]

Yeah, I agree blah: Comedy Central's new roast series are pretty sad. I actually watched the Bob Sagat roast the other night - insomnia and celebrity trainwreck rubbernecking - and I was amazed at the obvious use of cursing to create a buzz for the event. I curse a lot, but it just seemed that it was forced. If you do a roast, you have to curse and make jokes about whether or not the honored guest is gay. One of the roasters must a questionably attractive woman, who's vagina will be the subject of much discussion as to hygiene and frequency and caliber to use. Comedy central seems to have a whole group of people who do nothing but 'roast,' and as far as I can tell they have limited connection to the guest. They just have a whole list of jokes with 'insert your name' appeal. I'd rather see nothing but a group of people who actually know the guest assembled, who would make fun of them a little bit. Overall, it helped me sleep. So I guess that's a positive.

[Poppinjay]

The roastmaster guy didn't even know Flavor Flav when he roasted, and his guest japesters mostly didn't either. But Lisa Lampenelli was there so they talked about her vagina.

I thought the Shatner roast was reasonably good, if a bit awkward at times.

I wouldn't watch Bob Saget bag groceries. The buzz about him has always been that he's a bad sit com actor, but a hilarious dirty comedian. He's just as bad at comedy.

[hannukah harry]

i enjoy the current comedy central roasts, but i really wish that it was all friends/co-workers of the roastee. there's like 5 or 6 people who show up in most of the roasts that really don't seem to have any connection with the person being roasted, and, while i've found them funny, they are just generic jokes that could be used on anyone. i'd rather have seen dave coulier up on stage making fun of bob saget than brian poshien (i like him, but he even said he'd only met saget once or twice briefly).