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Gather Your Marshmallows and Hide: Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle Is Coming to Comedy Central

The Comedy Central Roast Of Justin Bieber - Show
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Lip Sync Battle, what have ye wrought? Comedy Central is jumping onto the battle bandwagon (a tank?) with Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle, a show that will wring mayhem from the orderly ritual of comedians aligning against common foes. According to Entertainment Weekly, Roast Battle will be a “mano a mano ‘Thunderdome’ comedy event in which two competitors hurl wickedly funny insults at each other.†Ross, a veteran of Comedy Central’s civilized celebrity roasts, will MC the show, joined by referee/comedian Brian Moses and a panel of “all-star†judges. Lest you think “battle†a merely semantic choice, Ross pitches the show as, “Think Fight Club for comedians where anything goes,†although evidently with a laxer first rule. Ross, in the X-Games of hyperbole, also called the show “the Olympics of insults.†Roast Battle will film at Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival, airing as a four-part special at the end of July. So, about that bit where sticks and stones break bones but words never hurt? Idiom, meet the bitter edge.

Jeff Ross’s Roast Battle Is Coming