Highlights and Lowlights of the Kevin Hart Roast on Netflix

I watched most of the Kevin Hart roast on Netflix last night because I opened up the Netflix at the wrong time and couldn’t resist. It paled in comparison to the Tom Brady roast for one major reason: Kevin Hart has no shame. That might otherwise make for a better roast, but honestly, the best part of the Tom Brady roast was watching him squirm during the uncomfortable jokes (mostly about his ex-wife). Also, the Bill Belichick jokes were delightfully out of line, and there is something novel about seeing athletes make jokes at each others’ expense because it’s not something we see everyday.

The only real difference between the Kevin Hart roast and most other roasts of comedians is that he’s more popular than most of the subjects, and most of the subjects do not have Dwayne Johnson demanding that Kevin Hart suck his nipples.

Should you watch it? In parts, maybe, but honestly, most of the jokes were about Kevin Hart’s height, his box-office bombs, and — occasionally — about the affairs he had in Las Vegas in 2017, which — again — might have been funnier if Kevin Hart had any shame. Here are the highlights and lowlights:

Shane Gillis — I’d say skip most of it because Gillis used much of his time to see how racist he could be and get away with it at a roast (including a lynching joke). But his run on Sheryl Underwood — and the jokes about her husband, who took his own life by jumping off a bridge a couple of years ago — are funny, mostly in the sense that Underwood was in on them. (And Gillis kept insisting that he ran them by Underwood ahead of time).

Tom Brady — Brady brings some real try-hard energy. He had an OK writer, but the man cannot deliver a joke to save his life. Even his “edgier” jokes were painfully cringe. I was embarrassed for him. He may have more rings than Peyton Manning, but Manning is the far superior comedian.

Chelsea Handler — Handler was the Ann Coulter of this roast, i.e., the person who was the recipient of most of the roasting aside from Kevin Hart. But all the jokes were mostly about how often she sleeps around, how she dated 50 Cent, and a bunch of jokes about how she sleeps with Black men. Handler’s jokes, meanwhile, were much of the same, plus a lot of short jokes at Hart’s expense. Pretty routine roast material.

Tony Hinchliffe — Like Gillis, Hinchliffe mostly wanted to see how much racism he could get away with at a roast. He was not that great, but the jokes at his expense over the course of the night often were (Kevin Hart had a good one about how Hinchliffe grew up in the “hood,” which described what he wore to the KKK meetings. There were also a lot of jokes about how much Joe Rogan subjugates him).

Draymond Green — The NBA star had a great writer, but he delivered the jokes poorly and frequently mentioned that the jokes were written for him, which took much of the sting out.

Sheryl Underwood — Honestly, my favorite of the night. She went hard. She was the Nikki Glaser of the Kevin Hart roast.

Na’im Lynn — No idea who this is, and neither did most of the people on the dais. I skipped it.

Regina Hall — No one wanted to make fun of Hall — she seems mostly bulletproof — but she actually had a great routine where she channeled Kevin Hart’s mother from heaven that was one of the more effective roasts because of who it came from. When Regina Hall talks sh** about you, it’s gotta sting a little more.

Pete Davidson — Short but effective. He clearly didn’t want to be there, but he’s very good at roast.

Jeff Ross — God, who cares?

Kat Williams — One of the better roasts of the night, mostly because of who he is and the longstanding beef between Williams and Hart. Williams came into a hostile environment and crushed it.

Dwayne Johnson — Entertaining only in how awkward it was. He had some decent material — mostly at the expense of Hart’s drug-addicted father — but it felt like Johnson went off script too often, and The Rock should not go off script. He is not a comedian, and it was obvious. But there was some awkward novelty is watching The Rock try and deliver profane, out-of-bounds jokes (often about sleeping with Kevin Hart’s wife). But mostly, I kept hoping his manager would come out and save him.

Kevin Hart — Bad. Hart never stopped announcing how hard he was going to go on everyone else on the dais long enough to actually go hard on them. He insisted he would be better than Brady because he’s a “polished comedian,” but he didn’t seem that polished. It felt too often like he was winging it, and he did not wing it well. He did have a few decent jokes at Kat Williams’ expense, though he ultimately hedged them all.