I have ambivalent, but some warm, memories of watching the old Dean Martin roasts as a kid; I have had much more consistently unpleasant memories of the CC Roasts, and have not bothered with most of the recent ones. For me the idea works best when it at least seems like the people doing the jokes, no matter how mean or obscene, actually know or at least genuinely like the target. A parade of strangers standing up for 3 minutes of obscene over the top insults feels like peeping at a glory hole.
I may though watch the Rob Lowe Roast (apparently airing Labor Day) to see the spectacle of Ann Coulter taking most of the heat - not so much to enjoy her discomfort (I don't care enough about her to get pleasure from that, and she is such an easy target anyway) but just to try to understand the architecture of the event. I see why they wanted her there (in part to get curiosity viewers like people like me) even though apparently there is no connection between her and Lowe. I see why Lowe might be happy to have her there (probably 33% fewer banging teenager jokes to sit through). But I don't really see why Coulter showed up. In the linked USA Today article she says it was to sell her new book (about Trump), but: 1. Is that really the crowd that buys a lot of her books? and 2. Trump's recent flip-flop-flip on Total Deportation has fundamentally undermined her book project anyway. I suppose she committed to the event weeks ago and so in that sense kudos to her for keeping it. I also suppose that her brand is built on going to the belly of the beast and then trying to butt-screw it to its face, so I suppose her fans will give her credit for sitting through it - and dishing it back. I guess what does make sense is that Coulter's whole act always reads like she is the third speaker at a never-ending Comedy Central Roast; mostly just a string of insults as inappropriate as she can make them and still get on air, often strung together in an incoherent manner. She is a right wing insult comic, and I suppose she felt at home. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2016/08/28/rob-lowe-roast-ann-coulter/89505556/ -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
