The dust has settled on the (in)famous Tom Brady roast.
The three-hour Netflix special provided us with more laughs and fun than we could have ever expected.
As it turned out, even Brady himself was surprised at the lengths some of the roasters went. But the reality is there shouldn’t be too many surprises when it comes to the art of roasting.
Brady should have known that virtually nothing would be off-limits … To his credit, he was a perfect sport about the whole event while it happened – but also made it clear not to expect a sequel.
One of the biggest stars of the event was undoubtedly comedian Nikki Glaser.
On the opposite end of that extreme, one of the biggest trainwrecks of the night was actor Ben Affleck.
Even the biggest Affleck fan in the world admits that his “set” bombed terribly.
Anyone who witnessed the roast – from viewers at home to people in the live audience to the actual roasters themselves – have spoken out about just how cringey Affleck’s attempt at “humor” was.
“I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. Twitter critics or something? It was awkward,” former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe told New England legend Julain Edelman on his “Games With Names” podcast.
Glaser took her critiques a step further and said the root of Affleck’s failure had to do with the fact that he thought appearing at the roast was “beneath him.”
“I was watching from the side, and I haven’t watched it again back, like how it looked, because I don’t really, I don’t like to watch people bomb,” Glaser said on Barstool’s KFC Radio.
“I think even if I heard about it, I’d be like, ‘I don’t need to see that.’”
She elaborated on why she believed Affleck’s performance fell flat.
“I know what happened,” she said. “He didn’t prepare. He’s someone that’s famous enough that thinks this is probably beneath them to do this and so I’m just going to do a favor. It’s not going to be that big of a deal.
“I’ve had the same kind of things like this and then you do it and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is way bigger than I thought. I was kind of phoning it in.’
“He like had a pitch to the writers probably about like, ‘Maybe I do an angle of like I’m mad about tweets because he’s probably … he has a bone to pick. It wasn’t, and he locked into a premise that he had to do the whole thing.
“Everyone else has joke, joke, joke, so if your joke bombs, you’re on to the next one. That’s what he should have done.”
Glaser also pointed out that Affleck’s set could have been salvaged.
“There were enough jokes that weren’t used, which could have filled up Ben’s entire set,” she revealed, suggesting that the lack of coordination was a key issue.
“We gave the benefit of the doubt because he’s Ben Affleck,” she said, implying that there was belief that he’d be able to read the room and adjust.
Maybe Glaser’s being too harsh. Maybe she’s not.
Either way, it’s safe to say that Affleck’s set didn’t hit the way he was hoping.
Being long-time friends with Brady, Affleck deserves credit for taking the stage. However, Glaser is probably onto something by suggesting that not much preparation went into his set, and he may have not realized just how big of an event it was.
From his “jokes” bombing to his apparent face-lift, Affleck ended up getting roasted just as bad as Brady did that night.
What are your thoughts on Affleck’s performance?
Was he indeed the worst roaster of the night?
In the bigger picture, what did you think about the entire event as a whole?
More importantly, where do you rank The Town among the best movies of all-time???