If anyone deserves a good roasting, it would be Donald Trump. There are only two factors which make this comedy special not as funny as it could have been: 1) They did it too early; just think if they'd decided to roast him AFTER he lost this election in a landslide, not to mention all of the many outrageous things he's said and done over the course of the campaign; and 2) They didn't go far enough. With the exception of a few zingers, the dais handled him with kid gloves, you know, the kind that Donald Trump wears. From a big-picture perspective, the roast was funny and I laughed a fair amount. There was only one true bomb, courtesy of Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, one of the no-talent hacks from the Jersey Shore. Of course, maybe it's fitting that a failed comedian come from one of the many places where Trump had a failed business. Who knows? For my money, fortunately not much of it, the best routines were by Anthony Jeselnik (?) and Snoop Dogg, who acquitted himself quite nicely in a performance format for which he's generally not known. If you're one of the many people checking this out a second time now that Trump's threat to run for President has become reality, you might find some laughter here. However, your best bet would just be to follow the news as he continually provides fodder for jokes much funnier than what you'll find here.

Roast of Donald Trump (2011) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Donald Trump is such an easy target that I must admit I went into the latest Comedy Central Roast with rather low expectations. As you'd expect, there were many jokes dealing with his bad hair, how ugly he is and of course how his money gets the beautiful women. There were some god-awful moments thanks to one single person but outside of that sad joke everything was in high form. Lisa Lampanelli, Whitney Cummings, Snoop Dogg, Larry King, Anthony Jeseinik and the one and only Jeffrey Ross were among the roasters with Seth MacFarlane once again serving as host. I was really surprised at how terrific most of the jokes were with Snoop Dogg doing a rather masterpiece piece where he was firing off jokes left and right. His timing was downright perfect and not a single joke didn't work, which is rather amazing since this guy isn't a comic. Even more shocking is that not once did you feel he was reading the jokes as he delivered all of them like a complete pro. Marlee Matlin had a lot of jokes aimed at her being deaf but she hit a grand slam when it was her time at the podium. Through her interpreter she gets off one great joke after another. As usual Jeffrey Ross does a terrific job with a few jokes that crossed the line of good taste but he still made them funny. The biggest joke of the night, as every media outlet in the world has discussed, comes from "The Situation" who bombs with every single joke. I honestly can't remember a time when such a bomb took place as every bit of energy in the house left, not a single laugh followed and thankfully the entire room started to boo. I've never seen Jersey Shore so I don't know what "talents" he has there but it's clear from the performance here that he hasn't an ounce of talent and it's proof that our society is on the downside when such a person could be famous and have money.