How is a roast joke made? What are the vital componants?

Question

In the long history of celebrity roasts what goes into what is said?
What are the perameters? What is considered poor form?---PLEASE don't roast me to teach me a lesson or example.

Answer 1

State fiction and allude to the truth, manage those in one sentence and you will have people in stitches

Answer 2

Poor form at a roast. Yeah, that's good. It's like dampness at a swim meet. Consider the version you see on the boob tube is heavily edited to fit into the time slot. You are spared some of the akward ugliness.

Most important...everyone else at the roast needs to be a lot less important than the one roasted. That's why the ones throwing the barbs are D-listers, who in any other situation would be on the wrong side of the velvet rope.

Now with Shatner's roast, his TJ Hooker toupees, his "singing" career and third season Star Trek girdles were fair game. It was also open season on masturbating to Farrah's poster and anything related to fallatio/sodomy and Andy Dick/George Takei (ryhmes with Gay)

On the other hand, Shatner's wife's tragic death, floating in a Hollywood Hills swimming pool...apparently off limits. He's Bill Shatner, ferchrisakes, not Osama Bin Ladin. The goal is not make the big guy break down and cry or run off the stage cursing and punching through stage props. Nah, that would be Shatner's roast in Hell, which will not be televised. I can't really think of anything else that was taboo. Perhaps true personal tragedy, the death of family members is always a no-no....poor form, as you say. This ain't "doin' the dozens". I can't recall a roast when someone said, "Yo' mama so fat..." or "Yo' wife done drowned",

The roast is all about honor and ironically, the strongest and most effective way to honor someone is to bring all of their weak moments and grandeous follies into the blinding light. Part of greatness is the ability to laugh at one's self. Without that humility, the roast would merely be a washed up celebrity at an intervention on the way to Rehab.

Answer 3

The concept of the roast goes way back in time -- royalty and peasants would switch places for an evening. The idea is that that, just for once, the big bosses get to be poked fun at.

Modern roasts are fun. Frank Sinatra was a big boss and watching his buddies tease him was really fun.

I tried to watch the two roasts hosted by Comedy Central of Pam Anderson and Bill Shatner ~ it was pretty horrible. Talk about a 'B' list of comedians and a poor choice of roastees. When your sole choice is poopoo caca dick jokes, then you simply have no ammo.

Answer 4

Remember underneath it all, a roast is still an event honoring that person. So you can point out some of their foilables, but you don't incincerate them with rude comments (that might even be true!). Pick one or 2 things that you can comment on, maybe they have hair like Don King or wear outlandish outfits, something like that. It would be in poor taste to say something that comments on multiple divorces and how they couldn't hang on to a mate--touchy area.

Answer 5

making fun of the person in the chair and often being misleading and using jokes relating to their past (that the viewers would know)

also making jokes relating the person of honor compared to some of the other roasters.....like making a joke about shatner and takei at the same time
for example...like saying that william shatner's singing was so good it made elton john take george takei's d*** out of his mouth

george takei is gay by the way and so is EJ....

Answer 6

It should be vulgar and said with love.