Roast Battle as the Last Safe Space for Comedy

• 19:28Tim explains his homophobic roast material was done seriously, not as a joke, then made out with Jonathan Rau after the battle.
• 20:08Roasting is about celebrating flaws and laughing at things that aren't that big a deal.
• 20:19Comedy has become obsessed with speaking truth to power and giving every word weight and gravity, when it should just be something enjoyed over chicken to get through the horror of life.
• 20:49Comedy should be racist, homophobic, and sexist because those are human traits, and humor illustrates how ridiculous they are.
• 21:12Louis Gomez made a great point about the hunger for inappropriate, edgy, subversive humor that people want to hear.
• 21:22Roast battle is the ultimate definition of a safe space because everybody's intent is to make people laugh and there's no disagreement over it.
• 21:53Since Trump's election, comedy has gone weird with people saying straight white guys can't punch down because of privilege hierarchies.
• 22:29The essence of comedy is having fun and making people happy; everybody's funny and something about everybody can be made fun of.
• 22:45Not every joke needs to punch up at billionaires; comedy also includes dumb jokes about people in lower stations of life.
• 23:08Tim made a joke about his transgender friend Robin Tran that she can't go to heaven now, which is funny because they're just being silly.

Robin TranLuis GomezDonald TrumpJonathan Rau