Where the Internet Goes to Be Insulted
On the /r/RoastMe subreddit, people willingly subject themselves to trolling. Sometimes it backfires
A few years ago, some friends and I reserved a room at a Korean karaoke bar the night before my roommate, whom I’ll call Greg, was moving away from New York City. We had no intention of singing. We just wanted a private, soundproofed space with a microphone and free-flowing beer. We were there to roast Greg.
One by one, each of us stood up in front of the neon-lit room and aimed our snark and indignities, normally spread scattershot among one another, squarely at our friend. Stupid facial hair. Fat. Questionable choices in women and in life. (He was going to graduate school for musical performance.) Even if the wit wasn’t there — and it wasn’t, for some roasts — the truth usually was. The roasts were intimate and cut deep because we all knew the stories behind them. Greg then roasted each one of us in turn. Everyone was blind drunk. Everyone had fun.
Jeffrey Ross, the master of the Comedy Central roast, said a roast is “a sign of affection, truly. It’s a true test of love and friendship: Can you make a man laugh at himself?” The people you roast, he said, are those you “love and respect.”
