Last week Channel 4 played host to three of the most excruciating hours of television ever broadcast. Of course Channel 4 didn’t quite describe it like that; preferring to call their series of Comedy Roasts ‘a fond and irreverent tribute’. Unfortunately this description was either a naïve mistake or a cynical lie. I ended up watching much of the series hidden behind a cushion, my face contorted into a horrified grimace and wishing I’d heeded the advice of The Sunday Times, who had already warned me to avoid this ‘bafflingly unfunny exercise’.
Despite the fact that we British pride ourselves on our ability to create complex comedy rich in irony, sarcasm and satire it seemed as though the comedy roast was a step further than we could stomach. Predictably hosted by Jimmy ‘contractual obligation’ Carr the series attempted to ‘roast’ the lives and talents of some of the countries top entertainment heavyweights: Bruce Forsythe, Sharon Osbourne and Chris Tarrant. And in keeping with the fact that none of them are conventionally talented this was not comedy in the conventional sense.
Every presenter, comedians and acquaintances alike, seemed to be working under severe duress. The gags were stilted and uncomfortable, people missed their autocue and all the jokes were accompanied by a nervous sideways glance towards the respective guest of honour. The audience too looked truly uncomfortable in their attendance, hardly making the presenters jobs any easier as they squirmed in their seats and failed to stir up any sort of atmosphere. Even the usually stony faced Mr. Carr was a far cry from his normally unflappable self.
All this could have been forgiven were the jokes either funny or shocking. Instead the viewers were subjected to a rather lame and patronising stream of guff. The best of the bunch, notably Sean Locke and Jack Dee strolled through their lines; the pay check in their pockets was practically visible. At the other end of the scale a nervous Jamie Theakston fell to pieces in front of Tarrant while a languid Ronnie Ancona traipsed through a script that must have taken the entire taxi ride in to write. To say they pulled their punches would be a gross overstatement as it implies the writers even dared to make a fist.
Admittedly it’s a difficult line to walk, trying to be fond without fawning or be irreverent without being plain abusive, but Channel 4 messed it up in a big way. The audience could only stare at their drinks while the presenters cringed their way through the routine. Luckily the celebs being roasted were egotistical enough to enjoy a night devoted to them and grinned their through the others’ obvious embarrassment.
Compare our version of a roast to the ones found in America and it’s plain to see why ours failed so spectacularly. In contrast to our subtle attempts of humorous word play and delicate innuendo the American’s take a far more balls-out approach: replacing subtlety with vulgarity, word play with profanity and innuendo with straight-up cock jokes.
- Are we impressed yet? Sean Lock and Jack Dee clearly aren’t
But it works. And even when it doesn’t the Americans have the good grace to cackle as raucously as though it had. Sure it may have moments bordering on homophobia, racism, ageism, sexism or religious intolerance but at least it gets a laugh. In USA they don’t care when they take a joke too far. Yes, people are offended. No, they don’t stop telling them.
Does this mean that American comedy has finally gotten one over on us Brits? Dare I say that we are we unable to match our cousin’s from across the pond in terms of progressive comedy? The USA has no time for awkward silences: they bomb through their punch lines while our punch lines merely bombed. The worst thing is that we know these comedians could have told jokes about the celebs all day long; lord knows there’s plenty of material. The problem is that it’s not as easy when the joke is sitting in the room smiling along. I wonder what that says about us.
Joseph you need to do more TV articles. x
Are you kidding! The William Shatner Roast was just plain awful! I had the fortune not to watch the British Roasts, I can imagine the subtlety bombing, but c’mon, the American Roasts weren’t great, they just happened to have an audience that were more inclined to just laugh at everything! I’d rather just leave it as “we’re all terrible”.
I don’t think the American roasts can be described as anything other than ‘awful’ but at least they were able to raise a laugh. In contrast the British version failed to garner even the smallest of chuckles and made me feel physically uncomfortable in my own living room. There is nothing more cringe worthy than watching clearly awkward comedians sweat their way through a set of rather tame, lightweight jokes.
Personally, i won’t be watching or attending any more comedy roasts in the future.
The only thing I didn’t like about the Sharon Osbourne’s roast was the constant apologies: it’s a roast… No mercy! That woman is really awful and could have been better. But that’s the UK for you, insults followed by ‘sorry’ and ‘please’!
Shame that Greg Giraldo is dead, he would have killed there!
I think that insulting comedy works when people are easy to insult, like Sharon, Hasselhoff, Flavor Flav, Trump… If they don’t mind making a joke out of their lives, why not laugh at them?