The highly talked up roast with Justin Bieber aired this past Monday. Comedians and stars such as Jeff Ross, Natasha Leggero, Will Ferrell, Hannibal Buress, Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Ludacris, and even Martha Stewart took turns poking fun at the multi-millionaire. While Bieber essentially “asked for it,” I have to say he did a great job at turning this roast into a PR motive.
It’s clear that Bieber is making a pretty great effort in changing the world’s opinion on him, some calling it his “Apology Tour.” He’s made a number of apologies, some airing on popular television shows. This one was quite anticipated. With over four million viewers from the first viewing, it’s no wonder why the Biebs would want this kind of publicity. People want to watch celebs make fun of the, as Natasha Leggero puts it, “piece of sh*t.” With all these views, it’s only natural for Justin to put out an apology at the end of the show.
Although Justin had to sit through some pretty brutal jokes, it worked out well for him. I can’t say if Justin actually cares about the whole “bettering himself” off screen, but he seems pretty devoted on screen. It even seems some editing on the roast benefited Bieber. This was posted by Hannibal Buress:
Even though I’m not a fan of the PR tactic I believe Justin Bieber manipulated, I still did really enjoy the show. In fact I could probably watch it over and over again. So I put together a short list of my favorite slams on Bieber and other members of this cast.
1. “I hate your music more than Bill Cosby hates my comedy.”- Hannibal Buress
2. “Kevin has a Napoleon complex. Kevin, Napoleon was the leader of France. Ludacris, France is in Europe. Justin, Europe’s a continent. Shaq, a continent is not a free breakfast.”- Natasha Leggero
3. “Justin has fans in middle school or staying 500 feet away from one.”- Kevin Hart
4. “First of all, thank you Kevin Hart, it’s really great to be here, sitting and listening to you yell your jokes over the last hour. It’s the hardest time I’ve ever done.”- Martha Stewart
5. “Orlando Bloom took a swing at you, you have a perfume called Girlfriend, you threw eggs at a house — not gangster.”- Kevin Hart
6. “Wow, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg are here. If I was 38, I’d be freaking out right now.”- Pete Davdson
7. “Snoop, you look like Shaq’s skeleton.”- Natasha Leggero
8. “People don’t realize this, but those ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirts? They were about Shaq’s last season on the Celtics.”- Chris D’Elia
9. “I’m new to comedy, but here’s a joke: What do you get when you give a teenager $200 million? A bunch of has-beens calling you a lesbian for two hours.”- Justin Bieber
10. “You are the King Joffrey of pop.”- Jeff Ross
I tried my best to only include the cleanest jokes on this particular list, if you can handle a little bit more explicit humor, watch the roast for yourself. It’s worth it. The reason why the roast of Justin Bieber came about is debatable, but all in all, it’s good TV. Television isn’t always fair and media doesn’t always do the best job with representation. If it works for him, that’s great. But like Hannibal said, I personally hope it doesn’t.