Roastmaster General Jeff Ross Blasts ‘Fake Rules’ for Comedy
Last time we checked, the only person telling Jeff Ross he couldn’t tell a joke was when Tom Brady whispered in his ear about New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s visits to the local massage parlor. But that didn’t stop the Roastmaster General from blasting hypothetical critics this week outside a Washington, D.C. event.
To be fair, journalist Nicholas Ballasy lured Ross into his gripes with leading questions like, “What do you make, generally speaking, of the entertainment landscape, comedy in the age of cancel culture? Are certain topics off limits for you?”
Nonetheless, the roast comic took the bait. “The kind of comedy I do has always been okay for my fans,” Ross boasted. “Roast fans are the most dedicated. They don’t care about what any fake rules are. What’s funny is funny. There are always going to be people who pretend to be offended, but those are the people who offend me. It’s the hypocrites.”
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The way Ross sees it, only keyboard warriors have problems with outrageous humor. There’s no problem when “you get offline and out in the real comedy clubs, in real theaters,” he explained. “People don’t want their comedy watered-down. They want it potent, right to the stomach. And that’s why I try to do.”
But Ross admitted he alters his jokes depending on whose stomachs he’s trying to punch. A room full of young military cadets, the kind of audience Ross was in D.C. to entertain? “They’re not looking for corny jokes,” he said. “Those people are working hard.”
None of this is new territory for Ross, whose brand of insult comedy depends on a “you can’t tell me what to say!” ethos. On Howie Mandel’s podcast in 2021, Ross called cancel culture “bullshit.”
“If laughter is the best medicine, why would you ever want your medicine watered-down?” he ranted. “You want your medicine potent, name brand, full dose.”
Take that, Robert Kennedy.
Ironically, Ross said his biggest comedy fear wasn’t getting canceled — it was hurting somebody’s feelings. “I don't like to hurt people's feelings. That eats at me,” he told Mandel. “In the rare occasion that it gets back to me, it eats at me. And that’s what keeps me up because I really do try to find the line.”
He’s especially careful on social media, the place Ross says is the most dangerous for jokes. “If you're at a comedy club … nobody gives a fuck what you say. You could say ‘Queen Elizabeth is the biggest c*** in England’ and everyone will laugh,” he insisted. “If you say that on social media, you’re going to get fired.”
