Historical Roasts Season 1 Review

May 31, 2019 at 6:05pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a Netflix Original Series that brings the legendary Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross to the forefront of history. He’s here to bring big figures from history, and to roast them alongside their peers of that era. It’s a sound concept and one that has perfectly horrible execution here. That’s right, this is one unfunny and mostly awkward thing to watch.

Despite featuring short episodes this is was a slog to go through. I was really looking forward to this as the Roastmaster usually delivers and this seemed like a prime situation for him to perform within. He definitely did bring in some solid talent, but they didn’t have good material or weren’t fitted with it. Even the crowds looked rather bored with few laughs to be found when they were spliced in. They certainly did deliver on authentic looking costumes and in how everything was setup.

Certainly no issue there, but the heart of this should be the laughs and it was rarely ever funny. Id’ say the Freddie Mercury one was by far the best in this series, even then it wasn’t amazing. Seth Green was David Bowie was probably the highlight of that one. Other than that, this is painful to sit through. It should have been at least a solid watch, but it just wasn’t.

I had hoped for better with this and was certainly disappointed. They picked a good variety of historic figures to make fun of, but they didn’t get good material in terms of the jokes. That’s what a roast is all about, the laughs and it was mostly cringe inducing or silent after statements.

It also felt really fake at times in terms of the awkward acting, and what felt like occasional forced laughs from the performers. They should maybe stick with roasting regular folks on Netflix, I believe that would be better. Or, maybe the Roastmaster General has just lost it now. This was painful to watch and sit through, with just a waste of talented comedic individuals. I expect more from Jeff Ross, and generally some laughs. Perhaps the biggest roast was the almost non-responsive crowd, or bored guests.

The Conclusion

Historical Roasts Season 1 painfully misses the mark despite picking some unique figures from the biggest moments in human history. The Roastmaster General missed the mark here and while comedy doesn’t always deliver, some of the jokes should to make this even have a little value. I’d highly suggest staying away from this one with only perhaps saying check out the Freddie Mercury one as that was a standout, despite also being really weak overall. I want laughs from my roasts and I thought the potential was there for some good ones.

I suppose there was a little focus on history, so that’s neat. At the same time, who cares when you’re trying to make people laugh in this type of show. I don’t want to see any more of this and hopefully it’s just a one off situation as this didn’t deliver. I would like to see more roasting material on Netflix, but they need to grab some modern guests to do this properly. That’s incredibly clear after watching this experiment. Fans of roasts deserve better, especially from the noted General of them.

Historical Roasts Season 1 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 3.5