Two years ago, Netflix scored a massive ratings hit with The Greatest Roast Of All Time: Tom Brqdy by broadcasting it as a live three-hour event from the Kia Forum in Inglewood, with an arena full of New England Patriots fans, surprise appearances by Brady’s estranged coach, Bill Belichick, and actor Ben Affleck, and a star-making roast performance from Nikki Glaser. How would Netflix fare trying to duplicate the success by making Brady’s roast host, Kevin Hart, the main attraction this time around?
The Gist: As a comedian, actor, and pitchman, Hart’s hustle certainly has given his fans and foes alike plenty of fodder to make fun of him over. He even spent a couple of minutes at the end of the roast shouting out all of his corporate sponsorships by name.
Among those taking a crack at Hart: A comedian he started as a teenager with in Philadelphia in Big Jay Oakerson; one of his most loyal writers and opening acts in Na’im Lynn from Hart’s Plastic Cup Boyz; a frequent co-star in Regina Hall; “Roastmaster General” Jeff Ross and fellow comedians Chelsea Handler, Pete Davidson, Tony Hinchcliffe, and Sheryl Underwood; Lizzo showing up with her flute leading a parade of little people, symbolizing Hart’s stand-ins and stunt douhles; Teyana Taylor (in person, but supposedly reading the letter she wrote claiming she couldn’t make it); Draymond Green from the Golden State Warriors (who got booed every time he was mentioned); and tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams (presenting him with his own GOAT ring).
Plus the two big “surprise” reveals of Katt Williams and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, which turned out to be completely vital to the proceedings having any compelling chaos.
Memorable Jokes: But it all kicked off with this event’s roastmaster, Shane Gillis delivering a monologue in which he (in true Gillis form) also delivered a running commentary about how well each of his jokes were going over, only to introduce Usher for a performance from the middle of the arena, and then a period where Hart himself started vamping onstage as if he were hosting his own roast. All of this was so Hart could be rudely upstaged by none other than Brady.
Brady is an executive producer on Netflix’s GOAT Roasts, so this actually wasn’t much of a surprise, although who would’ve expected the most successful NFL player of all time to go harder on Hart than most everyone who’d follow him? Brady brought up the comedian’s scandals such as his DUI and when he got caught cheating on his wife, and even pretended to hit on Hart’s wife who was sitting in the audience.
The rest of the first 90 minutes of the vent, however, left much to be desired. Although there were moments, mostly when the comedians went after each other, where you could feel some palpable tension in the room.
Gillis introduced Handler as a Zionist, and followed it up by saying “speaking of dead kids,” prompting her, in turn, to go after Gillis and Hinchcliffe as part of the podcast bros who propped up Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
There were some moments in the first half of the almost three-hour production. Notably when Chelsea Handler went hard in the paint toward the podcast bros about their support for Trump.
Her clapback: “Now that your favorite leader is making the draft mandatory, I assume that all of you will be signing up to go fight in Iran. Or do you tough-talking pussies only go to the Middle East for comedy festivals?”
Hinchcliffe tried firing back at Handler but mostly misfired, until he turned his attention to the roastee of honor, bringing up Hart’s failed fast-food franchise idea. “Kevin has so few Black friends that he started a vegan fast-food chain and nobody stopped him.”
Ross, going up early, did get in plenty of punchlines at the expense of Hart and the others on the dais, telling Hart, among other things, that “the world first fell in love with you when Michael Jackson dangled you over that balcony,” describing him as “the man who put the elf in Philadelphia, reminding him that “tonight I dress like your idol Eddie Murphy because he’s not coming,” that since his late father was a crack addict, “so I guess being dependent upon The Rock runs in the family,” of Hart’s movie choices versus his workout regimen, that “it’s arm day, it’s leg day, when is it script day?” and about his height, reminding all of us that “Prince was 5-2. We just don’t talk about it a lot because Prince was great.”
Our Take: Who would’ve guessed that Pete Davidson and Sheryl Underwood might come out of this event looking the best for their troubles?
Even though Davidson took heat for topics he has taken heat on for so many years at this point (including his FDNY dad dying on 9/11 and his illustrious dating career) but came out smelling like a rose by defending his appearance at last year’s Riyadh Comedy Festival by saying of Hart, who also performed there: “The difference is he went there for a day’s work, while I’ve been owed that money since I was 7.” And Underwood, who’d taken a beating from just about everyone over the first 90 minutes, went up and tore the roof off the joint. To Hinchcliffe, she replied: “My husband only died once. You die every night with those dumb wack ass jokes.” At the end of Underwood’s set, she received the first and perhaps only sincere standing ovation of the night, and Gillis reacted by ad-libbing, “Keep it going for Bernice Mac.” Which he meant as a true compliment.
The problem was this roast didn’t need to be almost three hours, just because the Brady roast took that long. And while the surprise additions of Katt Williams and The Rock did add both flair and chaos, no matter how manufactured the chaos was, it still came off more as chaos than as comedy.
By the time the Williams sisters, bad sound levels and all, attempted to present Hart with a GOAT ring, it was painfully clear that Brady’s own barbs against Hart were prophetic. “I guess it wouldn’t be a Kevin Hart project if it wasn’t a shitty sequel?”
Indeed. Unlike the inaugural event at the previous Netflix Is A Joke Festival, called “The Greatest Roast of All Time,” this roast wasn’t toasting a true GOAT. Sure, Hart has made a lot of money and appears onscreen all of the time, it seems, but nobody inside or outside of comedy considers him the greatest comedian, even with him winning The Mark Twain Prize two years ago. In fact, most everyone who showed up for that ceremony in 2024 spent more time making fun of Hart than celebrating him. And we’ve also seen comedians roast Hart during the Brady roast, as well as just a couple of weeks ago during “The Roast of Marshawn Lynch” episode of Funny AF with Kevin Hart. He’s simply overcooked at this point.
If Netflix wanted a GOAT who’d pull in massive ratings and jokes we’ve been yearning to hear comedians tell about them, they could’ve, would’ve, should’ve gotten Dave Chappelle. Who was at this year’s Netflix Is A Joke Festival. Though not a participant in Hart’s roast. Ahem.
And if Netflix just wanted the spectacle of a formerly considered comedy GOAT turned goat that they brought back into the fold at this year’s festival, they could’ve roasted Louis CK. That might’ve been Funny AF.
Our Call: Even the biggest fans of Kevin Hart would be better off sticking to the highlight reels than sitting through this whole thing. Much like one of Hart’s movies: SKIP IT.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
