The Roast of Chevy Chase: The Worst Night in Comedy
Celebrity roasts have been a staple of comedy for generations. The tradition of inviting a “Guest of Honor” to be “roasted” by a dais comprising their friends and peers in the entertainment industry (or whoever needs a check) has gone through many phases and changes in style and format. In the days of the New York Friar’s Club and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, the roasts contained much lighter ribbing than the current-day style, which was made popular by the raunchier Comedy Central Roasts (although the private events held at the Friar’s Club were notoriously dirtier than what was allowed on TV at the time).
From 1998 to 2002, Comedy Central began televising the Friar’s Club roasts, featuring honorees such as Drew Carey, Jerry Stiller, Rob Reiner, Hugh Hefner, and Chevy Chase. The events were notable for using the same formal tuxedo attire seen during the days of Dean Martin, but because they aired on cable, these roasts allowed profanity (most of which was censored). Clips from these roasts are fairly easy to find on YouTube, and when looking back on them, it becomes clear that the main selling point of these roasts was the thrill of seeing celebrities swearing, even if those swear words were bleeped out. These roasts were generally received well by comedy fans until the roast of Chevy Chase, a roast so notoriously bad that it has never been re- aired, and prompted Comedy Central to cease airing Friar’s Club roasts, and start producing their own series of roasts starting with The Comedy Central Roast of Denis Leary in 2003.
With Comedy Central not airing a roast since Alec Baldwin’s in 2019, and the recent mixed reactions to the Netflix roasts of Tom Brady and Kevin Hart, it seems the roast format is going to have to undergo another change. And what better way to do that than to take a look back at The New York Friar’s Club Roast of Chevy Chase, the worst night in comedy.
The New York Friar’s Club Roast of Chevy Chase (2002), which can be found on YouTube, is notorious for being brutal and painful to watch due to the fact that Chase’s reputation had taken a major hit, and most of the comedians serving on the dais were not personal friends of Chase. Add to that, it becomes clear early on in the special that Chevy Chase did not want to be there. This made for a night of deeply personal jokes regarding Chase’s arrogance, career lows, and many jabs at the lack of co-stars present at his special night. The special literally opens with Roastmaster Paul Shaffer performing a song entitled “We Couldn’t Get Anybody Good,” ending with Shaffer looking at Chase and saying, “Tonight Chevy, you’re fucked.” Which does not even elicit a smile from Chase. But perhaps the worst part of the evening was seeing the genuine dismay on Chase’s face when hearing some of these jokes. It is almost as if this was the first time in his life that he was made aware that he had earned the reputation he had.
“An O.J. roast would’ve drawn more star power.” – Greg Giraldo
Now, before I go any further, I would like to say this: I like Chevy Chase. I understand he has a bad reputation, but he is also Clark Griwsowld, Fletch, and the first ever anchor of Saturday Night Live’s longest running sketch, Weekend Update, so I’ll be honest with you, I can’t stay mad at him. And honestly, watching this roast as a fan of his is very tough. As the special goes on, the cuts to Chase to see his reaction to the jokes become fewer and farther between. Chase spends the special seated, wearing sunglasses, barely laughing.
A common misconception about this roast is the assertion that none of Chevy Chase’s real-life friends or colleagues were in attendance. While there are few, some key players from Chase’s career are still present, including SNL alumni Laraine Newman and Al Franken serving as roasters. Longtime friend and one-time comedy collaborator Richard Belzer also participates. The night also features a comedic musical roast performance by Vacation series co-star Beverly D’Angelo. Video segments from Randy Quaid, as well as another featuring Steve Martin and Martin Short, are also shown. And to top it all off, Paul Shaffer, who performed for the band on Saturday Night Live before going on to become David Letterman’s sidekick and band leader, serves as the Roastmaster for the evening. Even his old friends take multiple jabs at his arrogance and career failures, and even they are rarely able to get a chuckle out of Chevy Chase.
“I can only imagine how painful injuring your scrotum must be, especially when you’re as big a dick as Chevy.” -Larraine Newman, referencing Chase’s scrotum injury while doing a pratfall in a Gerald Ford sketch.
Most of the best performances from this evening go to the, at the time, up-and-coming comedians such as Greg Giraldo and Lisa Lampanelli, both of whom would go on to become staples of the Comedy Central Roasts series. The roast also features a set from Stephen Colbert, who delivers a comedically dramatic monologue about his conflicted feelings toward roasting a man he believes is both a comedy legend and an unpleasant jerk.
“This man [Chase] never forgot what got him wherever it is he thinks he is.” -Stephen Colbert
Another moment from this roast, which has infamously become one of the most uncomfortable moments in comedy history, is when comedian Marc Maron has his turn at roasting Chase. Maron was still a little-known comedian at the time, and he himself has stated that he is not good at roast comedy. In his set, Maron alleges that prior to the roast, Chevy Chase was disappointed that he was being “roasted by nobodies,” to which Maron claps back with “at least I’m a nobody at the beginning of my career,” a jab that is met with moans and hisses from the audience, and no camera cut to Chase to see how he felt about it. Maron described his performance years later in an interview with Howard Stern as “bombing” and that the performance seen in the roast was “sweetened” by Comedy Central. This is very apparent when watching the roast, as Maron’s set lasts only a few minutes and the editing is noticeably choppy. After his set, Maron awkwardly shakes Chase’s hand and can be heard over a hot mic saying, “I hope everything’s okay.” Maron called it “one of the worst nights of my life” and even stated that it made him reconsider a career in comedy.
“I remember watching your talk show… briefly, obviously.” -Marc Maron
Finally, the roast ends with Chevy Chase being presented an honor by Freddie Roman, the “Dean” of the Friar’s Club, and being invited up to give his rebuttal. Any true comedy roast fan will tell you that the rebuttal is the most important part of these roasts. After an hour (or longer) of being mocked and ridiculed, the guest of honor finally gets to face their accusers and have the final word. Chase approaches the podium, slouches down, and says in an almost bewildered voice, “I agree with everything that’s been said.” He then roasts the entire dais in one fell swoop, referencing his rebuttal as time to “get even with the other comedians” before quipping, “but there fuckin’ aren’t any.” In fact, the only roaster whom Chase pokes fun at by name is Lisa Lampanelli, telling her to “get a shave” because she looks “like Nixon’s ass,” a joke that I’m sure was hilarious in 1975. Chase then goes on to make a joke about the colorful language used by the comedians that night, listing off a series of curse words (all censored) as if he is doing his own rendition of George Carlin’s “7 Dirty Words” routine. He then sincerely thanks Paul Shaffer, says thank you to the audience, and then leaves the podium unceremoniously. In the years since the roast aired, it has been said that Paul Shaffer had to console Chase after the event, as he was genuinely surprised and saddened by what was said about him that evening.
Why bring this up now? When this roast took place, it made comedians and comedy fans really analyze the tradition of comedy roasts. After all, this was the last televised Friar’s Club roast before Comedy Central decided to produce its own. The problem with this roast is simply that it was not fun. Chevy Chase was not having fun, the roasters were not having fun, and the audience was not having fun. Paul Shaffer probably has the most fun during the whole evening, and even his mood begins to dip more and more as the night goes on.
The Roast of Kevin Hart, which streamed live on Netflix this past May, was also not fun. The overstuffed, three-hour, live event hosted by Netflix was met with much criticism for the content of the jokes and its much more malicious tone. There was palpable tension among the roasters, notably between Tony Hinchecliffe and Chelsea Handler, both of whom have publicly called each other out on podcasts since the roast aired. If your celebrity roast leads to a genuine feud between the participants, it was a failure. On top of that, it has become clear that the goal of these Netflix roasts is simply to “clip farm” and get the internet talking. Manufacturing controversial moments, such as Kim Kardashian being met with boos at the Tom Brady roast, to Katt Williams, a genuine critic of Kevin Hart, making a special guest appearance at the Kevin Hart roast, are in complete contrast to the good spirit that is required to make these roasts fun, and just serve to fuel the social media outrage machine that has entirely consumed our culture.
At the end of the day, the best roasts are the ones in which the event is held not just as a comedy special, but also as a genuine, albeit ironic, honor for the man or woman of the hour. Chevy Chase’s roast did not feel like an honor. And while that very well might have been the point, it does not make for a good roast, any more than the Netflix roast specials have made for very good roasts. The spirit of the event is really what matters most. Just as the roast of Chevy Chase marked the end of one era of roast humor, ushering in the harsher era of roasts since, perhaps it is time for the celebrity roast format to go through another change.
To end on a positive note, I will share what I think is the best joke from The New York Friar’s Club Roast of Chevy Chase. This joke was delivered by friend of Chase, and Law and Order star, Richard Belzer:
“But today, the only time Chevy Chase has a funny bone in his body, is when I fuck him in the ass.”
That made Chevy chuckle.
Inside the Unserious 