Between 1998 and 2002, the American television channel
Comedy Central produced and televised the annual roasts of the
New York Friars Club, which the club hosted since 1950. • 1998 –
Drew Carey, roastmaster
Ryan Stiles • 1999 –
Jerry Stiller, roastmaster
Jason Alexander • 2000 –
Rob Reiner, roastmaster
Michael McKean • 2001 –
Hugh Hefner, roastmaster
Jimmy Kimmel • 2002 –
Chevy Chase, roastmaster
Paul Shaffer After the original five-year agreement expired, the network began producing its own roasts in the same spirit. The first, featuring roastee
Denis Leary (and produced by Leary's production company, Apostle), aired on August 10, 2003. His roast was the most watched program in the channel's history, excluding episodes of
South Park. Some roastees have stated that certain topics are off limits.
Pamela Anderson, for example, prohibited jokes about her
Hepatitis C infection.
Joan Rivers disallowed jokes about her daughter
Melissa,
William Shatner asked that the death of his wife not be mentioned, and
Donald Trump prohibited jokes about him not being as wealthy as he claims he is. Others, like
David Hasselhoff, have imposed no limits on the topics. Although
Charlie Sheen initially agreed to no restrictions on his roast, he later said during an interview with
Jay Leno that he requested jokes about his mother be edited out of the broadcast. During Sheen's roast,
Steve-O made the joke "The last time this many nobodies were at a roast, at least
Great White was playing". This was a reference to
The Station nightclub fire in
West Warwick, Rhode Island, that killed 100 people on February 20, 2003. It was removed from broadcast on Steve-O's request. During
Denis Leary's roast,
Lenny Clarke, a friend of Leary's, said there was a carton of cigarettes backstage from
Bill Hicks with the message, "Wish I had gotten these to you sooner." This joke was cut from the final broadcast. During
Roseanne Barr's roast,
Jeff Ross compared fellow roaster
Seth Green to
James Holmes, the mass murderer responsible for the
2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting. The joke was not in the broadcast program. During the roast of
Justin Bieber, multiple jokes about the passing of
Paul Walker, co-star and close friend of fellow roaster
Ludacris, were cut from the official broadcast. ==Roasts==