“Welcome to the Ann Coulter Roast with Rob Lowe,” quipped controversial political commentator Ann Coulter during her turn onstage, which was fitting, as she took the most blows tonight at Comedy Central’s Rob Lowe Roast ceremony, held at the Sony lot. The digs were sharp, frequent, and packed with c-word drops as every single one of the other roasters opened up on her with both barrels as if she were there as the representative of Donald Trump. Which, she kind of was.
“Ann describes herself as a polemicist but most people call her a c***” said SNL‘s Pete Davidson, who then muttered “a racist c***” under his breath.
“What is like to be a real life supervillain,” asked comedian Nikki Glasser. “The only person you’ll ever make happy is the Mexicans that dig your grave.”
“Choosing between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton,” said comedian Jimmy Carr, is “like choosing what film to watch on Flight United 93.”
And that’s just a sample. Per usual, Coulter reveled in the hate, and admitted she was only there to promote her new book, In Trump We Trust, which was unsurprisingly met with loud boos from the audience. Equally unsurprising, she used the opportunity to make jabs Hilary Clinton that bit hard, even if they weren’t particularly good. “Why is Jeff Ross at every Roast?” she asked about the so-called RoastMaster General who was also on hand. “He think he deserves it, everybody else just goes along with it. He’s like Hilary Clinton.”
As is tradition for the Comedy Central roasts, practically nothing was off limits. Lowe’s past controversies were a frequent topic, particularly his infamous 1988 sex tape with a 16 year old girl. Sticking the knife in deeper, a 5 second clip of the tape that left nothing to the imagination was shown during the opening of the ceremony. “Truly Rob, roasting you wasn’t easy. What can I say that hasn’t been said in court by three nannies, a chef, and an underage girl from Atlanta?” jabbed Jeff Ross.
Lowe’s past struggles with drug abuse also provided punch lines. “Rob was in the movie The Outsiders back in the day,”said the evening’s RoastMaster David Spade. “His character was Sodapop because he was 98% coke.” Lowe took it all in stride however, and didn’t miss the opportunity to make fun of himself. “David, I loved you in 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter. I have one simple rule, don’t video tape it.”
Also not off limits: The 9/11 terrorist attacks, specifically the fact that Pete Davidson’s father, a firefighter, died in service that day. “This is not the roast of Pete Davison’s father, that was in 2001,” said Carr in one of the darker zings. Davidson took it in stride however: he’s frequently joked about it himself, including last year at the Justin Bieber Roast, and he tonight he seemed rather… we’ll call it ‘relaxed’ and leave it at that. Whatever the case, he grinned a lot.
Jewel, Ralph Macchio, Peyton Manning, and Rob Riggle were also in attendance tonight. Comedy Central’s Roast of Rob Lowe will air on Labor Day at 10 PM PT.