Netflix brought back the celebrity roast format tonight with The Roast of Kevin Hart, its second swing at the genre, and Shane Gillis opened the show live before Hart took his seat onstage. The setup was familiar from the start: Usher introduced Hart and showed him to his throne, a cue that made clear this was meant to ride the same wave that turned the Tom Brady roast into a social-media phenomenon.
That earlier roast drew more than 2 million viewers on its first night, and clips were still circulating two years later, which is the standard Hart is walking into now. Brady himself showed up again for a new round of shots, telling Hart to “shut up,” handing him a Knicks jersey and joking about allegations of affairs in Las Vegas, while also needling his career by pointing to 23 NFL seasons, seven Super Bowls and five Super Bowl MVPs as a résumé Hart could not match.
Brady’s best lines were aimed at Hart’s screen work. He mocked the comedian for appearing in two Ride Along movies, called him the third most popular man in Jumanji and said the cast looked like it should have been shut down by Spirit Airlines, later adding, “how did they get there, I thought they shut down Spirit Airlines.” He also said Draymond Green was in the room and would probably get thrown out, before adding, “we’re not roasting Steve Kerr,” and even called Hart “a guy who shows up when the team is good,” a line that landed because it was both playful and mean.
Gillis, who said he was “taking a paycheck while pretending to have fun,” helped set the tone with jokes aimed at Chelsea Handler, Big Jay Oakerson and Tony Hinchcliffe. That matters because Netflix is not just staging a one-night comedy special here; it is testing whether the Brady formula can be repeated with another star whose name can carry the event. The company’s first celebrity roast in years was described as a viral success, and the numbers behind it explain why Hart is now center stage.
The question hanging over the room is no longer whether Netflix can mount a roast. It already did that with Brady. What tonight is really measuring is whether Hart can turn the same blunt, very public beating into a hit of his own, or whether Brady’s act remains the one to beat.
