Caitlyn Jenner Threatened to Pull Out of A Comedy Central Roast Because of This Burn From Nikki Glaser
Insult comedy great Nikki Glaser claims that she had to cut a joke from her set at The Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin after Caitlyn Jenner threatened to quit the show, which would be completely in-character — we all know that it wouldn’t be the first time a Jenner crash-out cut a woman short.
Just two months before Jenner famously came out as transgender in April 2015, the Olympic gold-medalist, reality TV star and Republican demagogue was involved in a fatal, multi-car collision in which she rammed her SUV into a car driven by Kim Howe, an animal rights activist and actress who died from the crash. Jenner never faced criminal charges for the incident and Howe’s stepchildren settled their civil case against the celebrity out of court a year later. But in the court of Glaser’s opinion, Jenner’s driving deserved its day on the dais.
As Glaser explained at the Time100 Summit in New York this week, during her preparation for the 2019 roast in honor of the 30 Rock star Baldwin, Jenner caught wind of a joke that Glaser planned on making about the conservative star’s 2015 crash and told Comedy Central she would pull out of the special if Glaser didn’t cut the line.
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Glaser agreed to nix the gag, because, unlike Jenner, Glaser respects a red light.
The objectionable joke in question, which Glaser revealed during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show later in 2019, would have gone, “Caitlyn Jenner, what a beautiful woman… you killed with your car four years ago. I love that you’re the one woman who can’t menstruate, but still manages to have blood on her hands.”
Glaser clarified that a male writer came up with the second line of the bit, saying, “You can tell (a man wrote it) because it implies that, when women have their periods, they just have their blood all over their hands, which is so funny to me.”
According to Glaser, she sent the joke to Comedy Central for approval ahead of The Roast of Alec Baldwin, and the network warned her that Jenner would walk from the show if she kept the line in the script. Jenner confirmed those fears when Glaser sent her the questionable material directly, as Glaser explained, "She said, ‘If there’s a joke like that, I don’t want to be a part of it.” Not wanting to drive away one of the biggest guests of the night, Glaser acquiesced, saying of Jenner’s objections, “As soon as I heard that, I go, ‘Okay, I’ll take it out.’ I just needed to hear it from her.”
Glaser said that her decision to give Jenner fair warning about the bit comes from advice that Jimmy Kimmel once told her about the delicate nature of roast comedy, which goes, “If you’re worried about a joke and how it’s going to go over, just ask them.”
Even the most ruthless insult comedians know when to indicate to their targets that hits are coming. Meanwhile, Jenner’s still trying to figure out the turn signal.
