James Franco’s Roast Fails to Beat Charlie Sheen's Despite Gay Jokes
James Franco's roast is trending but it has failed to beat Charlie Sheen's roast when it comes to viewership. According to Nielsen, around 3.1 million viewers tuned in to watch the premiere of James Franco's roast on Comedy Central, which is less than half the record viewership for Charlie Sheen's roast in 2011.
A whopping, record creating 6.4 million viewers had watched Charlie Sheen's roast, which is the highest rated Comedy Central roast till date. However, compared to last year's roast of Roseanne Barr, the turnout for Franco's roast on Sunday night was much better. Last year, nearly 2.6 million viewers tuned in to watch digs at Roseanne, according to USA Today.
Nielsen reports that "a total 5.2 million viewers saw the two showings of Franco's roast on Comedy Central," which featured Seth Rogen as roast master. Aziz Ansari, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Jeff Ross, Jonah Hill, Natasha Leggero, Nick Kroll and Sarah Silverman roasted Franco. There were gay jokes in plenty, at his expense. Also, he was roasted for his drab co-hosting of Oscar, with Anna Hathaway in 2012.
"I don't think James is gay or straight. It's just that he literally can't open his eyes enough to see who he's f--king,": Silverman said.
"Who is the real James Franco? Is he an artist? Is he an actor? Is he a scholar? He's tough to pin down; although I've heard many guys have been able to do it," Rogen said.
"Everyone is gonna make fun of James Franco for the Oscars, it's obvious. Everyone was saying James was dead up there! But I think that was Anne Hathaway's fault. I mean, fuck her for trying, like, at all," Hill said.
"I've never watched one of these roasts. I chose not to research this so I had no idea that they were going to be roasting each other [too]. I thought I'd be sitting here for two hours bearing the brunt of it so it was a huge relief," Franco said, as quoted by People. "I had a great time. Everybody was awesome, solid."
Some of the Tweets that found the roasting of Franco on Comedy Central hilarious:
Sasha @sashapaps: "Watched the james franco roast and as absolutely hilarious as everyone was, it looked like that was the last place franco wanted to be lmao."
Jared Burseth @JaredBurseth: "So pumped for @azizansari on Friday! He was hilarious on the #FrancoRoast , and the only one to throw other comics' jokes back at them!"
Nicole Tupechka @ntupechka: "Watching the James Franco roast. Sooo many hilarious people, so many hilarious jokes."