Mark Normand and his co-host Sam Morril weighed in on the Kevin Hart Netflix roast in a recent podcast episode, sharing their unfiltered thoughts on the controversy that followed some of the more aggressive jokes from Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe.
Normand acknowledged the backlash but seemed largely unbothered by it. “People are mad. Comedians are mad, which is so strange,” he said. Despite the outrage circulating online, he pointed to a reaction closer to home as a counterpoint. A Black friend of his called it his favorite roast ever.
The comedian described the overall tone of the event as chaotic and confrontational, comparing it to a Jerry Springer episode. Unlike the Tom Brady roast, which had a polished, professional feel, this one reminded him of something far more combustible.
“This one felt like Trump and Biden debating. Just off the rails,” he said.
Normand also offered a theory for why audiences seemed more rattled than in roasts past. He argued that when Comedy Central was putting on roasts regularly, they stood apart as one of the only places where genuinely no-holds-barred comedy could happen.
With social media and stand-up pushing edgier material constantly now, that sense of novelty has worn off. “Roasts are supposed to be no holds barred, but now I feel like everything kind of is,” co-host Sam Morril said.
Still, Normand was enthusiastic about individual performances. He singled out Hinchcliffe for having “the most jokes and the best jokes in a row,” while calling Gillis’s off-the-cuff moments “gold.”
Jeff Ross, he added, had “a lot of bangers,” and Sheryl Underwood received the biggest crowd reaction of the night.
Not everyone came away looking good in Normand’s eyes. He was blunt about the celebrity participants who missed the mark entirely. He said, “Not the actors. All the actors sucked. Teyana Taylor and Regina Hall was a big, big waste of time.”
One interesting behind-the-scenes detail came through a conversation Normand had with Bert Kreischer, who told him that several jokes which fell flat in the room ended up working on television. Gillis’s line about Lizzo, framing her not as washed up but “beached,” barely registered with the live crowd but went massively viral online.
Normand and his co-host also discussed Gillis’s moment involving Chelsea Handler and Jeffrey Epstein, which the co-host described as “a Norm type moment,” invoking the late Norm MacDonald’s style of stating something inflammatory without dressing it up as a conventional joke structure.
On the racism complaints that followed the roast, Normand pushed back without much hesitation. He said, “People are like, ‘Some of the jokes are racist.’ And you’re like, ‘Of course. Of course they are. There’s a lot of racist jokes. Racism is hilarious.'”
Co-host Sam Morril added that intent matters in that context. He said, “If you know the person’s not racist and you know the intent is just to make them laugh, there’s something kind of funny about it.”
