Buzz
Lightheartedly jab at your closest friends or coworkers with sharp and hilarious remarks that will have the crowd in stitches.
Playfully roasting someone during a social gathering can be a great way to get the whole group laughing, as long as the person being roasted is in on the joke. The key to a successful roast is knowing how to personalize your humor, and understanding where to stop before things get too far. This guide will teach you how to come up with material, write clever punchlines, and keep your roast fun and light-hearted, ensuring that everyone walks away smiling. Continue reading to prepare for your next memorable roast!
Key Takeaways
- Use personal experiences and unique traits of the person you're roasting to come up with funny material (e.g., 'Before meeting John, I never knew someone could eat a hot dog like that.').
- Develop an unexpected twist by setting up a misleading story followed by a punchline that catches everyone off guard (e.g., 'Susan is the best friend, confidant, and thief I’ve ever known.').
- Ensure the roastee is someone who can laugh at themselves and enjoys the banter. Avoid sensitive subjects like relationships, religion, or loss to keep things light and fun.
How to Proceed
Generating Joke Ideas
Draw inspiration from other roasts. If you're new to the art of roasting, spend some time exploring how others do it. Watch celebrity roasts or check out comedy channels online for some ideas. Studying these will give you insight into how roasts are crafted and executed. Learn what makes people laugh (including the roastee!).
- Keep in mind that while professional roasts on TV can be extreme, they often rely on shock value and dirty humor. This may not be appropriate for a friendly roast.
- For example, roasting your boss at a work event with foul language, inappropriate jokes, or rule-breaking stories could cause more trouble than laughs.
Consider the roastee’s peculiar habits or quirks. Think about any odd behaviors the person has that stand out. Maybe they always separate their food onto individual plates or only take the elevator if it’s not too crowded. These peculiarities can be great fodder for a roast.
- For instance, if someone is obsessed with peanut butter and bologna sandwiches, that's a quirky trait people will laugh at (“Carl’s sense of style isn’t the only thing strange—his love for peanut butter and bologna sandwiches is truly baffling.”).
- Be careful not to roast someone for more serious flaws or hurtful habits. These types of jokes can make the roastee and audience uncomfortable.
- For example, if someone regularly sends hurtful messages, it's hard to make light of and could backfire.
Think about funny moments you've shared with the person. Recall any unique or memorable interactions you've had. Everyone has those days where they’re a bit off, and those can make for hilarious material. If you’ve witnessed a truly ridiculous moment, it could be perfect for a roast.
- For example, maybe they once dove into a pool fully clothed at an office party just to save a box of donuts. You could turn that into a funny jab (“Deandra is so addicted to sugar that she ruined her $1,000 Armani jacket to save a $5 box of donuts from the pool.”).
Exaggerate, but keep some truth. A good roast joke is like a caricature: you amplify the person's traits for comedic effect, but you don’t fabricate things entirely. Often, the best roast jokes have a basis in truth, but avoid crossing into mean-spirited territory.
- For example, you might poke fun at Joe’s pants being a bit too short, riffing on his Steve Urkel-esque style. This way, you’re humorously highlighting his fashion choices without just insulting him for bad clothing.
Get insights from others who know the person. If you're struggling to come up with enough roast material, ask around. Friends or colleagues might have stories or details that you hadn’t thought of, which could add depth to your roast.
- Tap into the shared memories of your social circle. For example, maybe the person always burns dinner when hosting, and it's become a running joke among your group:
- "We all know Joe’s disaster-filled cookouts. So when he invites me over for grilling, I skip the step of cooking and bring the fire department along. Honestly, I just make up an excuse and order take-out. There’s really no punchline here. Joe’s just a terrible, terrible cook.”
Point out obvious characteristics of the person. Start with the traits that anyone who knows the person even slightly will immediately recognize. Are they unusually tall? Do they have a deep voice? Are they bald? As long as it's something they can laugh at, target these easy-to-spot qualities for some laughs.
- Is the person getting older? Try something like “Larry didn’t need to watch The Mummy at the theater—he was there when they wrapped and buried it.”
- Is the person bad with technology? Try “Larry is a great nurse, but his computer skills? Let’s just say he’s introduced more viruses to the office than our patients have.”
- Is the person overly frugal? Say “Larry’s so cheap, the stores in town had to change the sign near their cash registers to read ‘Take a penny, LEAVE A PENNY, LARRY!’”
Avoid focusing on race, gender, or sexual orientation. In comedy, making someone’s identity the punchline is known as 'punching down,' which often results in groans instead of laughs. Instead, roast the individual by focusing on what they say and do, rather than resorting to stereotypes or aspects of their identity they can't control.
- Humor based on denigrating others can unintentionally reinforce harmful biases instead of uniting people with laughter.
- If you share an identity with them, jokes can be more acceptable if it's clear you both feel comfortable with the topic and it’s part of the setup.
Creating & Delivering Jokes
Write multiple punchline options on index cards. Write your joke setup on one side of the card, and then brainstorm different punchline variations on the other side. These can include milder or more biting jokes, absurd takes, or even heartfelt ones. Having options allows you to adapt based on the audience's reaction. For example:
- Setup: "Just look at him over there, slouched in that chair. Let me tell you, my brother is so lazy..."
- Punchline 1: “... he can’t even find the energy to laugh at these jokes.”
- Punchline 2: “... that when his ex-wife said, ‘That’s it, I’m leaving,’ he just said, ‘Could you grab me a beer on your way out?’”
- Punchline 3: “... that no one even asks him to do anything anymore — actually, I just realized — my brother is a genius!”
Surprise your audience with an unexpected twist. Build your story or joke in a way that sets up a certain expectation, then flip it with a surprising punchline. For example, you could start by highlighting someone's good traits (“Dash is a great coworker—he’s organized, helpful, and punctual.”). Then, instead of finishing with another positive quality, end with something humorous about their quirks (“He’s organized, helpful, and the only person loud enough to be heard over traffic outside.”).
- For instance, if someone is obsessed with tea, you could create a surprise ending like this:
- “Once, I saw Jane dragging a box of 200 tea bags into the office. I asked, ‘Jane, how do you drink that much tea?’ She replied, ‘I’ll let you in on a secret — I soak my feet in it under my desk for foot odor.’ When I asked, ‘Then why are your teeth brown?’ she said, ‘Well, it’s expensive tea. I’m not wasting it!’”
Use specific details about the person to make your joke funnier. Give context to your joke by weaving in personal anecdotes. Simply saying, 'Fred is always late' is less amusing than turning it into a story. Just make sure your setup doesn’t drag on too long.
- For example: “Fred has never been on time for a meeting. When he was supposed to lead one, he thought he should start with, ‘OK, any questions before we wrap up?’ And for the ‘continental breakfast,’ he brought lukewarm decaf and half an onion bagel to share.”
Take your time and leave room for laughs. Good timing is everything in comedy. If you rush through a story or punchline, your audience might miss key details or fail to connect with the joke. Speak at a relaxed pace and create pauses, especially after the punchline, to allow the audience to react. For instance:
- “Steve has been with the company for 14 years and still doesn’t know how to use the copy machine. [short pause] His paperwork is like his employee-of-the-month award—[pause for effect]—not reproducible.”
Deliver your jokes with confidence to sell them. Believe in your jokes—at least pretend you do—to make sure the audience buys into it. If you’re unsure whether a joke will land, deliver it with extra flair and energy to make it more compelling. Even if the joke doesn’t get big laughs, your confidence will help everyone feel comfortable. If you’re not confident, neither will they be.
- To appear confident, make eye contact with people in the room. Make eye contact.
- Speak clearly and with enthusiasm, as though you’re telling a great story.
- Stand tall and avoid fidgeting. Practice in front of a mirror to refine your body language. Remember, you’re performing a role!
Keeping It Fun (And Not Cruel)
Ensure the person is a good sport. Reflect on past interactions—have you ever cracked a joke at their expense? If they took it badly, they might not be the right person for a roast. If you're unsure how they would react, ask them beforehand if they’re comfortable being roasted (assuming it’s not supposed to be a surprise). You definitely don’t want to roast someone who will take it too seriously.
- Roast people who can laugh at themselves. While those who can't take a joke may seem like prime candidates for roasting, they’re often the worst audience for it.
Avoid sensitive topics that might upset the roastee. Use your own experience with the person, or consult their close friends or family to determine which subjects are fair game and which ones cross the line. Everyone has their own boundaries, so it’s important to tailor your jokes accordingly.
- For example, discussing someone's eating habits if they have struggled with an eating disorder or body image issues isn’t appropriate (unless they’ve given you permission to do so).
- Similarly, while jokes about someone's eating habits may be fine for one person, they could be sensitive about other topics, like the way they dress.
Test your sensitive material on a small group first. If you’re unsure whether some jokes might cross the line, try them out on a trusted friend or colleague. If you're roasting a coworker, ask another coworker for feedback. If it’s a family member, consult someone else in the family. Usually, someone will be able to tell you if you’ve gone too far.
- Pick someone who will keep your test material confidential. If the joke doesn’t land, you don’t want it spreading before the actual roast.
Ease off if the person looks uncomfortable. Pay attention to their body language during the roast. If they’re laughing along and seem relaxed, you’re probably on track. But if they appear uneasy, take it as a cue to change topics or switch to softer punchlines for the remainder of your set.
- Signs they might not be enjoying the jokes include a forced smile or an unhappy expression.
- Other signals could be crossed arms, leaning away from you, or fidgeting with restlessness in their seat.
Steer clear of jokes about past relationships. Past relationships are often a sensitive topic, especially if they’re recent. Also, consider who’s present during the roast. If the person is in a new relationship, you might unintentionally stir up drama by bringing up the past.
- That said, some people are completely fine with these jokes—it all depends on the person.
- If you were involved with the person in the past, you might have the green light to joke about those relationships.
Avoid controversial topics like religion. If you don't know the person you're roasting very well, or if you're performing for a diverse group, it's best to keep the focus on their quirks and avoid sensitive subjects such as religion, politics, or the loss of a loved one. These types of jokes can alienate a wide audience, including the person you're roasting.
- If you’re unsure how a joke will be received, it’s better to skip topics that could potentially offend and choose safer alternatives.
- That said, there are no strict rules here—use your judgment and knowledge of the person and the audience to gauge if a joke will land.
Trust your instincts to differentiate between teasing and being mean. It’s often difficult to know when a joke crosses the line from funny to hurtful, but you’ll usually have an instinctive sense. If a joke makes you feel uneasy or you doubt it will land well, just skip it. A roast should be enjoyable, not nasty.
- If you can't have fun while telling the jokes, then what’s the point of doing it?
