Sarah Silverman wonders why Comedy Central’s #FrancoRoast targeted her age, as a woman

Comedy Central Roasts are all in good fun, “but it’s brutal!” So said Sarah Silverman, interviewed by W. Kamau Bell on Thursday night’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. “I think the secret about roasts is, everybody laughs. People were saying mean things about me, I was like, ‘Ha-ha-hahaha-ha,’ and then I was in bed for two days.”

Bell also played a clip from last week, in which one of his writers, comedian Guy Branum, counter-roasted the roasters last week, and fired additional zingers at Silverman.

Good ones, Silverman noted. And yet. She told Bell:

“His No More Mr. Nice Gay segments are so funny, and those jokes are good. But. And I wish so much that that didn’t cut me to the core. I wish so much, I don’t want young girls see me be hurt by jokes about age. Because I feel it’s not a good example. I know (audience applause). Oh, thank you! … First of all, me being old, first of all, at the roast? — completely took me by surprise. I mean, first of all, I don’t think anyone thinks of themselves as old. But I think ultimately, it’s a roast, and in a way, I feel like a hypocrite even addressing it. But to me, it touched on something. Just like ‘Jesus Is Magic’ touched on something with you (to Bell). Because it’s personal, that is just so woman-based. I wasn’t even the oldest one on that dais. I’m the same age as fresh-faced new star W. Kamau Bell! I mean. I feel like it’s a part of, as soon as you get — a woman gets to an age where she has opinions and she’s vital and she’s strong…she’s systematically shamed into hiding under a rock. And this is by progressive pop-culture people! You know what I mean? It’s really odd! I feel bad that it cut me. Because I should be like this about it (brushing her hand off her shoulder). I feel like your joke is that I’m still alive. My crime is not dying.

“And I feel like, I just did this special and it made me think of something I said, which was — to so many women, especially when I watch Real Housewives — (muffled, through gritted teeth) which I watch, I wish I didn’t, but I do — I just want to say, ‘Your heartbreaking attempts to look younger is the reason your daughter doesn’t dream about her future!'”

“Yeah. I know, it’s not a big laugh joke, but, it’s more like a sad joke.”

Silverman is 42.

Jeffrey Ross, aka “The Roastmaster General,” turns 48 today.

Roll the clip. The stuff about the roast jokes begins a few minutes into the interview, following some background for those of you who hadn’t Googled “W. Kamau Bell” and “Sarah Silverman” and known that he had written some critical things about her seven years ago. It’s all good now. They even exchanged T-shirts, so Bell can let everyone know he’s a “feminist” and Silverman can declare she’s “mostly not racist.”

Seriously.

Roll the clip.

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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7 thoughts on “Sarah Silverman wonders why Comedy Central’s #FrancoRoast targeted her age, as a woman

  1. I live in Chelsea in Manhattan and have found — through speaking with, interacting with, observing, over-hearing, and reading publications written by — that gay men are one of the most narcissistic, misogynistic groups of men around. Their level of vitriol aimed at strong, smart, loving, funny women is astonishing. So it doesn’t surprise me that a gay comic would personally attack Sarah about something that accomplished women in every industry are judged by. What does is that Sarah has the grace to compliment Guy Branum on his comedy writing.

    1. You do realize you’re being just as discriminating as the people you criticize? The worst part is you’re not doing it for comedy… you actually mean what you’re saying. Even if you know 100 gay guys, it’s still not a big enough sample to make a judgement and say “they inherently have THIS character trait because of who they sleep with”. If I see a fratboys puking in the street I don’t call straight men drunken idiots because their heterosexuality is irrelevant. Yet you decided to connect their sexual activity to a personal trait. Do you see how flawed your logic is?

      In your head you criticized a group of people but in reality, what you did is, you called me a misogynist without even knowing me (and not just me but countless of people who have nothing to do with you). Guy Branum being offended was stupid but he was always overly preachy (I remember him on Chelsea Lately) and it has nothing to do with him being gay. It has to do with him as a person, so next time stick to judging just him.

  2. Louis CK, a good comedian, made a joke on his TV show about Sarah Silverman looking great for her age as compared to how he has aged. Guy Branum, a not very good comedian, made a joke about Silverman “looking her age.” Coincidence? I think not.

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