Comedy Central Roasts (TV Series) Comedy Central Roast of James Franco (2013) User Reviews

If you only watch it for one reason...

[roma-victor82 · 8/10 · 26 June 2021]

Bill Hader is a gawd on stage as The President of Hollywood. He is a master impressionist and is the reason I keep watching this roast repeatedly. The dais is strong (minus Natasha Leggero, she's the reason the rating drops).

friendly roast

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 29 March 2015]

James Franco is getting roasted on Comedy Central. Seth Rogen is the roast master. The roasters are his friends. Well at least, they're his Hollywood friends. Bill Hader does a funny character who runs Hollywood. Aziz Ansari is probably the smartest. Half of his time isn't prepared and in response to the other roasters. Most of the roasters are taking as much aim at each other as they do at Franco. Aziz gets a lot of Indian jokes which he throws back at them. Jonah Hill gets a few weight jokes. Sarah Silverman makes a funny joke about Mexicans in Natasha Leggero. She makes it clear what's inside of Leggero. Nick Kroll is ridiculed for being a nobody. Jeff Ross is in cornrows and being a dick as usual. James Franco is probably the weakest but that's kind of expected after the Oscars. He does have some well written jokes. The thing that comes through is that everybody on the show and in the audience seem to really like the guy. He's not being roasted by strangers or hired guns. These people love to make fun of him.

Diamond in the Rough / I Laughed So Hard At One Point I Realised I Needed To Shower

[mad_man_moon · 9/10 · 12 July 2016]

Let's start by acknowledging the unfortunately large grey mammal in the room ... these things are usually horribly bad. Lots of unfunny people given a green light to tell "offensive" jokes that are made OK because someone from the demeaned group is there laughing and OK'ing it.

Thing is, jokes can be funny, and when it's owned, and has ... no ... I think I'm going to lose this thread of conversation. I'm so annoyingly not rabidly against anything open and funny against any given target, and also so annoyingly not hating "SJWs" for actually being totally right and fighting for the progression of society. It's a shame that life is 1's and 0's these days, but that's 01101100011010010110011001100101.

This show is actually phenomenal. I don't really want to ruin the comic beats, but I'll say that it's a massive crescendo that actually peaks slightly early ... however the last //indefinite number// were still fantastic.

I can't recommend this hard enough.

What I'm trying to say is that ... even though I tried not to single the comedians out and completely ruin the whole thing for you, I kinda did a little, and I'm a bit sorry. But that's still ... it's a bit of a ... well ... it's a certain kind of move. Without the ones that aren't as funny, the ones that are funnier wouldn't be as funny as they were.

I'll shut up. This is blinking great.

More gently funny than the other roasts, and not as vulgar (to its credit)

[brchthethird · 6/10 · 16 September 2016]

James Franco is interesting, in an oddball sort of way, but not necessarily the first person I'd think of to roast. He's certainly done a lot, but the usual honorees have the bulk of their career behind them. Not this guy, which kind of makes it a little more interesting. I thought that the featured roasters were all well-picked, even if not all of them were funny. Basically, the dais was filled with a bunch of his friends, which made it more intimate. I also liked that they didn't go so heavy on the vulgarity, making the subjects a little more diverse than usual. Still...So. Many. Jew. Jokes (Bill Hader's turn as an old Jew in a tracksuit was probably the best instance of this). My personal favorites were Sarah Silverman and Jeff Ross, who have done well in other roasts. Jonah Hill and Andy Samberg were bombs in my opinion. Jonah Hill seemed like he was trying too hard (or couldn't keep his game face on), and Andy Samberg's ironic performance just wasn't funny to me. James Franco's rebuttal wasn't necessarily the best or the worst I've seen, but it was alright. Taken in context of Comedy Central's other roasts, this is certainly one of the more creative ones, even if the end result is rather tame.

Sort of Pointless

[gavin6942 · 4/10 · 31 March 2014]

It is James Franco's turn to step in to the celebrity hot seat for the latest installment of The Comedy Central Roast...

I just have one question: why James Franco? Has Comedy Central run out of cultural icons like Hasselhoff and Shatner that they now have to turn to still-relevant figures like Franco? So wrong...

Of the comedians, Jonah Hill was the best, which was unexpected, though Bill Hader was decent, too. The rest were okay... Andy Samberg delivered roughly the same sort of style as Kevin Nealon has... it is a strange humor, but more tasteful than the profanity from everyone else. And Sarah Silverman is somehow hanging on to her brief stardom...

WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS

[birthdaycakeconnoisseur · 3/10 · 30 June 2022]

This roast SUCKS. It's an absolute bomb. Anyone who gives this roast a rating higher than 5/10 is untrustworthy. There were only like 4 sets that were even worthy of laughter. Almost everybody was terrible. Nick Kroll was a travesty of magnificent proportions, Jonah Hill was insufferable, Bill Hader was mid, Andy Samberg had one funny joke, and Aziz Ansari was trash. You know a roast is bad when both the roastmaster and honoree bombed. Seth Rogen, I assume had at least 35 edibles before the roast, and James Franco wasn't even funny. Sarah Silverman, Natasha Leggero, and Jeff Ross were the only saving graces of this absolute tragedy. Had it not been for the Boston Marathon Bombing, this would be the single worst thing to happen in 2013. This roast is a 3/10. Simple as that. Even a 4/10 is too high for this abomination. It's roasts like this that make me appreciate the older roasts like Shatner, Flavor Flav, and Joan Rivers. This roast was the worst thing to happen to Comedy Central since Mind of Mencia. WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE THIS ROAST?! I HATE MY SPECIES!

In summation, I award this roast no points and may God have mercy on its soul.

Too much filth

[drjgardner · 2/10 · 13 February 2020]

I'm a normal person when it comes to vulgarity, but this is too much. Most of the guests can only be funny with some crude and vulgar remark. It's not really even funny, though occasionally I did laugh. I'm not looking for "wholesome" material, but one vulgar rem ark after another is not my idea of a good roast.

Roast this.

[punishmentpark · 2/10 · 9 September 2013]

The sort of crap I must admit I've watched many times. It's awful, but some of it is só shamelessly rude (and still taken with grace), I can't sometimes help but smile, snicker or even laugh out loud. I apologize, I guess.

Tonight's episode, a 'TV movie' no less (as indicated here on IMDb), featuring the evening long squinting and grinning James Franco, was no exception in being only incidentally and remotely funny. The worst parts were Samberg's 'self-sabotage' and Franco's final 'clever artistic retort'; as awful as this you will not often see it. I will take it with me when or if I'll see anything with him (Franco) in it again.

Thanks to Hader's part (incognito and cognito laughing his ass off): a merciful 2 out of 10. I must also add that it was at times funny to see how embarrassed some of the befriended Roasters were starting to feel at some moments. Another plus! Well, 2+, then...