Although it won’t be airing until Monday, September 2nd, Comedy Central held its Roast of James Franco last night in Los Angeles. Aziz Ansari, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Nick Kroll, Natasha Leggero, Jeff Ross, Andy Samberg, Sarah Silverman, and roast master Seth Rogen were all on hand to make jokes at Franco’s expense, with most of them busting his balls over poorly-received Oscar-hosting performance with Anne Hathaway, his poetry and paintings, and the fact that he occasionally plays gay characters.
Jeff Ross showed up dressed as Franco’s Spring Breakers character with a gold tooth grill and dreadlocks, according to USA Today. Onstage, Ross said, “The academy should have known when you combined Anne Hathaway and James Franco you get Anne Franco, which makes sense since you should have gone into hiding after that. Face it, Franco, you and Anne Hathaway had the comedic chemistry of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.†During his opening speech, The Wrap reports Seth Rogen also piled on to the Academy Awards performance-ribbing with the joke, “Look at me doing all the talking while you sit there doing nothing. I feel like I’m hosting the Oscars with you!â€
Everyone on the dais also got in jabs at each other’s movies with Bill Hader going after Seth Rogen’s The Guilt Trip with “If I wanted to watch two ugly Jews weaving through traffic, I’d watch Seinfeld’s web series,†and Jeff Ross telling Seth Rogen, “I saw your mall cop movie, It made me realize what a funny guy Kevin James is.†Rogen also made a joke about his mentor, saying, “Judd Apatow was going to direct this but Comedy Central didn’t want it to be 40 minutes too long.â€
Franco reportedly took the whole thing well but winced during an uncomfortable moment that stood above the rest when Jeff Ross made a remark about Franco’s 92-year-old grandmother, who was in attendance, saying that he believes she has “127 hours†to live. Audiences will just have to wait until next Monday to see the show on TV for themselves.