Last Comic Standing 8: The Roast of Gilbert Gottfried

You know what? Last Comic Standing really has gotten a lot of things right in its eighth season.

When Last Comic did a roast several years back, it felt like a backroom thing. Low-budget. This time around it not only dressed up the contestants in black-tie, but made the whole thing a fully functioning show. With a legit roast victim in Gilbert Gottfried. And the only mentor you’d want for such a thing in Jeffrey Ross.

And even though the NBC episode cut everyone’s sets short, at least we finally saw all of the remaining six finalists tell jokes.

Ross said Nikki Carr and Lachlan Patterson enjoyed the best roast sets of the evening, so we’re treated to full bonus coverage online from them, with Carr winning immunity and an easy pass to the final five.

In voting “I’m funnier than…” the finalists ganged up on Joe Machi, perhaps thinking he’d used up all of his best material the episode before in an extended three-round challenge with Monroe Martin. They would be sorely mistaken. None more sorely so than Karlous Miller. Machi wisely chose Miller over his other head-to-head option in Rocky LaPorte. LaPorte instead automatically joined Carr, Patterson and Rod Man in the final five, and said he dodged a bullet because he didn’t have to compete in any of the head-to-heads this season.

Miller said he’d bring something new to the table for his challenge with Machi. Yeah, not the best idea. Even the editing of the judges (Roseanne, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Russell Peters) deliberating couldn’t hide the fact that Machi cruised to a victory.

So now we’re down to just five finalists.

Though it’s still not being broadcast live — we see you, previews for next episode! — at least the challenges are over and it’s now down to straight-on stand-up comedy.

The challenges this year all at least made some sense. Well, maybe not the sketch challenge. But the Universal Studios tour showed how well they can work a crowd, and the talk-show challenge with Ellen DeGeneres is something all winning comedians must know how to handle, and the roast is just a particular style of stand-up showcase.

Here’s the full “roast” episode of Last Comic in case you need to catch up, or want to watch it again:

https://www.hulu.com/watch/665785

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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