Gathering together a large group of well-known figures in the same room with the express purpose of making one of them the target for a nonstop barrage of barbs always carries the potential to cross the line, but the recent Netflix special roasting Tom Brady has come under fire for jokes that weren’t aimed in his direction.
Hosted by Kevin Hart, The Roast of Tom Brady lived up to its billing by mercilessly mocking the NFL legend, who spent 23 seasons playing in the league and retired as arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, winning a record seven Super Bowl trophies and setting countless more benchmarks along the way.
Anyone who agrees to be roasted with cameras recording everything in its entirety knows exactly what they’re getting themselves in for, but the panel of long-running TV talk show The View raised their issues with The Roast of Tom Brady repeatedly taking shots at Gisele Bündchen, with the couple being married from 2009 to 2022 and having two children together.
Obviously, Bündchen wasn’t in attendance at her ex’s roasting, but that didn’t prevent her from becoming the butt of several jokes, with host Whoopi Goldberg asking the other contributors to The View how they’d feel about somebody close to them laughing along at gags being made at their expense.
Unsurprisingly, political commentator Ana Navarro wasn’t best pleased. “If I were getting paid what he was probably getting paid – he was an executive producer – I’d laugh at all sorts of things,” she admitted, albeit with a caveat. “But, I think the person who wasn’t getting paid and ended up being part of this roast was Gisele, and I think that’s a bad, lame thing to do to your ex-wife and mother to your children.”
Legal expert Sunny Hostin shared that comedy being made at the expense of others makes her “uncomfortable,” with Brady again being criticised. “If you agreed to executive-produce your own roast and you’re making money from it and you agree to it, that’s one thing, but it is another thing [to bring Gisele into it].”
Another bone of contention was Brady defendinga dig at New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft – who was arrested on a misdemeanour charge of soliciting prostitution at a massage parlour – by telling compere Jeff Ross “don’t say that shit again,” whereas he made no attempt to try and stop his ex-wife from being dragged over the coals in front of a streaming audience. Roasts exist for a very specific reason, but mocking people who aren’t there to defend themselves isn’t exactly fair game.
