Netflix’s Roast – A long, heavily structured Netflix roast special—anchored by “The Roast of Kevin Hart”—sparks frustration over cutaway-heavy pacing, scripted crowd work, and cameos that crowd out the very comedians the format depends on. The piece traces how roasting evolved
When “The Roast of Kevin Hart” finally ends, the sting isn’t just that it ran for three hours—it’s that it never quite lands. The tone that should crackle with quick-fire comedy instead stretches, with awkward cutaways and long stretches where the jokes feel engineered rather than earned.
The special’s pacing becomes part of the problem on its own.. At three hours. it leans hard into the “supersize me” approach—complete with uncomfortable moments that cut away to Pete Davidson fake smiling and Chelsea Handler waiting for the whole thing to end.. Even the presence of Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos gets cut out along the way. implying he didn’t stick around.
The real question hanging over the show is how a format with such a storied comedic legacy can get tarnished so fast.. Netflix didn’t just dabble in roasts—it built a pipeline.. The company entered the genre in 2019 with “Historical Roasts. ” hosted by Jeff Ross. blending fictionalized roast versions of figures including Abraham Lincoln and Anne Frank.. Then. in 2024. Netflix went big again by positioning a Tom Brady roast as “the greatest roast of all time. ” hosted by Kevin Hart and featuring celebrities such as Will Ferrell and Ben Affleck.
That Brady special also helped launch Nikki Glaser into the spotlight as a “star-making turn” through her acerbic-yet-clever style.. She went on to host the Golden Globes in 2025 and 2026. while staying away from “The Roast of Kevin Hart.” Even so. the Brady roast’s staging raised its own credibility issues: it was set in the Kia Forum. with a capacity of 18. 000—an arena size the writer argues doesn’t suit comedy.
Where Brady’s roast largely worked, the piece says, was the presence of real comedians.. Ross. Hart. and Glaser were doing the roasting. and the subject was described as so awkward and uncomfortable that it became part of the entertainment.. That dynamic—somewhere between discomfort and comedic electricity—is framed as the difference between a roast that feels like a spectacle and one that feels like dead weight.
The author compares the feeling to older roast-era legends. from Dean Martin’s “Celebrity Roast” that ran beginning with a 1973 installment featuring then-California Gov.. Ronald Reagan, with comedians including Jack Benny, Don Rickles, Phyllis Diller and Jonathan Winters.. The piece also points to a personal family artifact: a 1967 bootleg recording taken from an 8-track of the roast of Don Rickles at the Friars Club. featuring Roast Master Jack E.. Leonard and comedians including Flip Wilson, Jackie Vernon, Johnny Carson, Pat Paulsen, Norm Crosby and Buddy Hackett.
It was that intimacy—roasting inside smoky rooms rather than sprawling across streaming spectacle—that the writer keeps returning to.. From 1968 to 1971. Friars Club Roasts were televised. and in 1974 Dean Martin launched his own televised roast series. running for a decade.. Later. Comedy Central produced and televised the New York Friars Club Roasts from 1998 to 2002. then launched “Comedy Central Roast” in 2003. which ran until 2019 with a final roast of Alec Baldwin.. The writer credits Ross’s career momentum to a Drew Carey roast in 1998. then says Ross became an overnight sensation at the roast of Jerry Stiller when he delivered the line: “I wouldn’t f–k Sandra Bernhard with Bea Arthur’s dick.”
The Comedy Central roasts. the piece says. worked because they respected the art form and stayed more intimate. with performers who were described as “good comedy.” It lists several roastees—Pamela Anderson (2005). William Shatner (2006). Bob Saget (2008). Joan Rivers (2009). David Hasselhoff (2010). Donald Trump (2011). Charlie Sheen (2011) and Roseanne Barr (2012)—while calling out exceptions. including a “dud” described as Justin Bieber and a “shmaltzy” Alec Baldwin installment that the writer says felt dull.
But when the story shifts to Kevin Hart, the structure changes again—and the critique sharpens.. “The Roast of Kevin Hart. ” the piece says. had 25 comedy writers and “very little comedy.” It also notes an executive producer credit: Brady is said to be credited as an executive producer alongside Ross and Hart. even though Brady is described as performing like a “cardboard” presence.. The writer says the producers and Netflix called on favors for cameos from major names like Jennifer Lopez and Dwayne Johnson. but asks why the night didn’t lean more on comedians themselves.
Questions about who belongs at the head table follow.. The writer asks why the Williams sisters were roasting Hart. arguing that in the old days the dais was packed with pros.. Here. they say the lineup was “mostly unknowns or little-known personalities. ” with scripts “scripted by the gang of 25. ” and jokes presented as repetitive—described as “three hours of Lizzo fat jokes. ” “Chelsea Handler slut jokes. ” and “Kevin Hart short jokes.”
Then there’s the cast’s structure, which the piece treats as especially uncomfortable.. It says the rest of the roasters were retired athletes. and that the worst part beyond host Shane Gillis—who is described as repeatedly apologizing for not being funny—was the roastee himself.. Hart is described as getting a microphone and being scripted to “jump up every two minutes” to “feign insult and protest.” The write-up also points to the Dwayne Johnson routine about sleeping
with Hart’s wife as “overplayed. ” framed as an attempt at homage to Will Smith’s Oscars moment involving Chris Rock. and it adds that there were “endless childish jokes about Draymond Green.” It concludes that the cast reading from a prompter was cringeworthy. and criticizes the production for being three hours with “no reason” for it to be live. suggesting Netflix should have filmed and cut it down to “the best one hour or 90
minutes.”
The roast format’s identity, in this telling, is tied to where and how it happens.. The writer recalls the Friars Club origins—New York City. blue humor. blue cigar smoke—and says the roast worked because it was inside and intimate. with legends taking shots at each other.. With Netflix’s production. the piece says the format loses its “had-to-be-there appeal. ” turning the roast experience into something compared to a UFC cage fight in the Vegas sphere.
The piece closes with a note of disbelief and possibility.. It invokes the idea of comedic elders “rolling in their graves”—specifically Buddy Hackett. George Burns and Milton Berle—and ends with a wager on Jeff Ross.. “Maybe Jeff Ross can save the roast at the end of the day. ” the writer writes. calling him the “roastmaster general” who has “done it once before and he can do it again.”
A pattern runs through the comparisons: in earlier roast eras. the writer points to intimate rooms and named standup pros taking shots. while in the Netflix examples the piece keeps returning to scale and structure—three-hour runtimes. scripted elements. and cameos—placing “The Roast of Kevin Hart” in a line that follows from Netflix’s 2019 “Historical Roasts” and the 2024 Tom Brady roast’s arena-sized staging.
Barry Avrich is the creative force behind Melbar Entertainment Group. one of the largest producers of non-scripted content in North America.. He has produced and directed over 70 award-winning documentaries and filmed productions including “Made You Look. ” “The Last Mogul. ” “Prosecuting Evil” and the upcoming “Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been ” with Taraji P.. Henson.. His best-selling memoir. “Moguls. Monsters and Madmen” was released in 2017. and his book. “The Devil Wears Rothko: Inside The Art Scandal that Rocked the World” (Simon and Shuster) was released in 2025.
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