Justin Bieber's Roast: What to Expect From the Show
— -- Justin Bieber faced the flames Saturday night for the taping of his Comedy Central roast, and nothing was off limits.
In his opening remarks, host Kevin Hart, dressed as a preacher, asked the crowd to "Belieb in a man who has the voice and the driving skills of Stevie Wonder."
Hart proclaimed that they were going to do to Bieber "what his parents and the legal system should have done a long time ago: give him the ass-whooping" he deserved.
Throughout the show, which will air March 30 on Comedy Central, comedians and fellow celebrities took shots at the singer's masculinity and much more.
As expected, Bieber’s former girlfriend, Selena Gomez, was referenced in a lot of jokes. Comedian Jeffrey Ross told the crowd that Gomez “wanted to be here, but she’s dating men now.”
Several others were far less polite, and Bieber was caught on camera laughing hysterically at some of the nastier Gomez swipes.
Asked backstage after the roast if he was bothered by any of the more personal stuff, the singer seem unconcerned. “There was no holding back,” he said. “So I mean, it was whatever.”
And when things went dark, they got really dark, with several jokes about Martha Stewart owning slaves, and references to Bieber’s mom, who was in the crowd, and abortion.
There were also a few not very well received ISIS jokes, including one from Snoop Dogg, who told the singer, “Justin, you release so many horrible videos you should change your name to Vanilla ISIS.”
But the ones that made Bieber cringe the most had to do with Paul Walker, who died in a car crash in 2013.
“I mean there was a lot of offensive jokes tonight,” Bieber said backstage. “I didn’t particularly like the Paul Walker jokes.”
Still, the singer had no problem with the shots directed at him, and when asked afterwards by ABC News which roaster he liked the most, he replied, "I thought Snoop did a really good job."
At the end of the almost four-hour roast, Bieber got in a few zingers of his own. He said the price of being a super famous pop star with $200 million in the bank is “a bunch of has-beens calling you a lesbian for two hours.”
Bieber then cut the comedy and got serious, apologizing to his fans.
“I turned a lot of people off over the past few years, but I know I can still turn out good music and turn everything around,” the singer pledged. “I lost some of my best qualities, and for that, I am sorry.”
Still, he enjoyed the mockery that was made of his trouble-filled years.
"I was actually worried, and I don’t know why I was so worried," he confessed to the media. "It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be!"
