Flavor of Roast

Yes, I indeed watched the Roast of Flava Flav last night.

Greg Giraldo killed it.
(Hurry up and watch before Comedy Central snags it back.)

Anyway, I have to say I really enjoyed it. I also have to wonder if media planners could account for the fact that this same dude (and potential target) was going to watch the U.S. Open but in looking for USA channel went through programming lists and saw this and decided to just assume that Roddick would win.

Some random observations:
-Roasting of Flav = Roasting of everyone on Stage. While it is standard proceedure to stick it to everyone in the spotlight, the roasters spent very little time on Flava Flav. I was wondering if it's because they didn't know him that well (enought to make jokes or predict his reactions) or didn't think he deserved to really be roasted.
-Though there is certainly a bit of Roasted by association. Every Brigitte Nielsen zinger was an "oh, snap!" moment where you'd divert your attention and embarrassment to Flav. Problem was, then you were embarrassed for him and a bit grossed out in general and then looked at Carrot Top, who just confused you and so you'd find safe haven in Patton Oswalt but would try and remember his name and get embarrassed and annoyed, so would look to Ice Tea who frightened you a bit,
-Also got me thinking about who is the best type of person to roast? Past roastees include Pam Anderson, Denis Leary, and Jeff Foxworthy. This one was my favorite because of the random assembly of comics, the inability to identify with Flav in any way, and also how he became an empathetic character but you never felt so sorry for him that the jokes crossed the line (the way you did with Denis Leary who, while he's a comedian so should be more able to take it, has real problems).
-That made me think about how "It's funny because it's true" is a weird statement. So is it's sad because it's true.
-Regardless of what you think of him, you cannot deny that Flav has a great sense of humor. Or at the very least likes to laugh.
-And finally, execution matters as much as or more than strategy. While many of the Comedian-roasters chose the same key areas to make their jokes—Flav's darkness and nastiness, Lisa L.'s love of black men, Jimmy Kimmel's luck, Kat Williams' height, Carrot Top's lack of talent, Brigitte N.'s amazonian manliness, Snoop's love of the sticky-icky, and Ice Tea's age, etc.—only some connected. This was based on creativity and timing (not just comic, but when you went in order of comedians). That said, I was impressed how many ways they could insult Brigette's manliness but the seemed to have difficulties finding new, funny ways to joke about Snoop's smoking habit. All in all, if you like the clip above, you may want to peep the rest on repeat.