Comedy Central’s decision to make Donald Trump the latest victim in its semi-entertaining Roast Series seemed like a cop-out. With a list of ex-roastees including Carson Daly, David Hasselhoff and Flava Flav, one can imagine how easy it must be for a comedian to steal already popular insults from the media and convert them into ‘original’ material. But surprisingly, Trump’s special provided some first-rate entertainment. Thanks to the comedic brilliance of his merciless roasters,the Trump mudslinging saved the typically unamusing Comedy Central roasts.

The host of the event, Seth MacFarlane, could not have been more perfect. With an unfathomable knowledge of pop culture, the genius behind ‘Family Guy’crushed the Donald and his group of guest celebrity roasters. His jokes were the best of the night, due to his impeccable timing, satire and unpredictability, in addition to his ridiculous and racy references to topics having nothing to even do with Mr. Trump (much like ‘Family Guy’).

First up was Lisa Lampanelli, easily the most vile and vulgar female comedian to ever exist. Every time she hits the stage, the ‘Queen of Mean’ always delivers. Though she had the crowd roaring, Lampanelli relied on recycling favorite topics of sexually transmitted diseases, her infatuation with black men, and the male and female ‘anatomy.’ How she managed to relate Trump and sexuality we’ll never know, but the fact remains that she was still on her A game.

Next was Whitney Cummings, an up-and-coming comedian whose attractive appearance camouflages her brutally lewd personality. One might call her the next Sarah Silverman, only Cummings doesn’t look like a horse. Though her material proved predictable, her delivery was still very strong. She made quite a few cracks at Big D for his use of money to obtain young women, status and, of course, his infamous headpiece.

Larry King barely made it to the stage without croaking, which is exactly what every other comedian poked at him for. Despite all of the ‘grandpa’s about to die’ jokes directed at him, King took the jabs like a champ and spent his time making legitimate stabs at Trump and the clan. The late-night legend was unexpectedly one of the best, continuously pulling the self-made millionaire down the ‘old man’ road alongside himself.

Snoop Dogg showed his diversity in talent by maintaining the same comedic level as those before him. Excelling mostly in his timing, the old school rapper outed Trump for smoking with him and even called him out for carelessly putting many of ‘his people’ on the streets. All in good fun, it was impressive at how easily his material flowed, but I guess that’s normal for someone who’s been rapping for 40 years.

And then it happened. Everyone’s favorite degenerate, Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino, had the cricket’s howling at how unfunny he was once he began listing off insults (bad ones, at that) toward Whitney Cummings. After bragging about the amount of money and women he has at his disposal and failing to stay on the topic of Trump, it began apparent his material was merely a series of statements. Keep your day job, whatever that even is.

Thankfully, Anthony Jeselnik is good at what he does. The young comedian received a lot of criticism for being the most unknown out of the bunch, but his dry energy, combined with his clever attacks, proved he had the goods. Most of his time was spent roasting his fellow comedians, but that didn’t stop him from bashing Trump’s casino failures and enlightening him that no one would care if he got cancer. Basically, anyone who can make an audience laugh after the nuclear explosion of the ‘Sitch’ deserves a lot of credit.

Closing up was Jeff Ross and Marlee Matlin. Ross, a comedian known mostly for his roasting abilities, delivered a subpar performance. A ‘good job, buddy’ pat on the back, if you will, but nothing too different from the cliché Trump jokes. What was most shocking was Matlin. Famous for her Oscar-winning role in ‘Children of a Lesser God,’ Matlin was weirdly — yet satisfyingly — perverted toward the Donald with her jokes. She, like King, was a great sport in getting hassled for being partially deaf, but was still able to bash the man of the hour with jokes of his chauvinism and lack of talent other than his monetary blessings.

Finally, the Donald was given his chance at redemption. As good as he was, it was kind of hard to remember any of his comebacks after he announced he really is running for president in 2012. I don’t know what’s more upsetting: his campaigning or the fact that his justifications for running made him sound like a suitable candidate. Does Big D have what it takes? Looks like he might get the last laugh after all.

reparks@syr.edu

Published on March 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm