Summary
- Affleck’s roast of Tom Brady at Netflix’s event was unexpectedly intense and focused on toxic online fan behavior.
- Affleck’s emotional rant seemed to stem from personal experiences with online criticism and tabloid rumors.
- The roast took an awkward turn as Affleck shifted the focus away from crude jokes and towards a tirade against toxic fans.
As part of the Netflix Is a Joke event, Netflix has been experimenting with some live-streaming comedy. There was Katt Williams’ new special, there’s a six night event with John Mulaney, and tonight, May 5, there was The Roast of Tom Brady. Like many roasts, it was both hilarious and brutal, filled with jokes we can’t repeat here; suffice it to say, they went after Tom about everything. There are always some cringe moments in roasts, and doing it live was an extremely risky move on Netflix’s part. While the humor may have offended some people, the most awkward and unfortunate moment of the night game nearly two and a half horus in, when New Englad Patriots fan Ben Affleck walked to the dais.
It was clear from the start that Affleck was a little off; sweaty and with an overactive lower jaw, slurring the occasional word, he didn’t seem completely on his game. You could chalk that up to anything, though — performing comedy live in front of literally millions of people, plus the sold out audience, is nerve-wracking if you’re not a successful stand-up comic. Affleck didn’t even seem to attempt comedy, though, and seemingly misunderstood the point of a roast, which is for people to make very crude jokes about each other, mostly in good fun, usually for charity. What Affleck did, instead, was rant about online football fans.
Affleck began by recounting a production day on the set of their Dunkin Donuts commercial. “Tom asked me to look at his social media accounts for him. I guess for some reason, he gets a lot of online criticism. But I took a look at it, and I gotta say, I didn’t even last two f*cking hours. It was the most toxic thing I have ever experienced.”
How a Tom Brady Biopic Series Should Be Developed
There has been plenty of conflict and drama in Tom Brady’s career and life on which to base a biopic series.
Affleck then targeted one specific social media handle, while past players for the Patriots sat behind him. “Meanwhile, Tom and all these guys up here, you always hear them say, ‘It’s all about the fans. We do it for the fans.’ Well, let me let you in on a little secret,” Affleck told the particular commented. “Tom could do it without you!”
You’re talking sh*t behind your AOL account in suburban Buffalo […] He has seven rings. You took seven years to get your GED. This is the NFL! You’d be in the f*cking hospital if you stepped on the field for one play!
“You sit there, f*cking hiding behind your keyboard,” continued Affleck, “spewing out all this f*cking toxic sh*t about people you’d be afraid to come up to if you saw them at the carwash […] You guys out there talking sh*t, all right behind your f*cking keyboard, that doesn’t make you a fan. That makes you a b*tch.”
Ben Affleck Continued His Tirade for an Awkwardly Long Time
Perhaps Affleck is projecting, somewhat. Of course, he loves Tom Brady and he loves the New England Patriots, but he’s also been subject to countless online critics, tabloid rumors, obnoxious paparazzi, nosy journalists, and mean people in general. The abuse he received during his short tenure as Batman was enough for a lifetime. In a sense, Affleck was turning the roast onto the people who have hurt him throughout his career.
“Imagine working for [the fans],” continued Affleck. “You go out and f*cking challenge yourself and succeed every day to the degree, to that f*cking level, and you’ve got to go online and read that sh*t? I can’t think of a more f*cked up, dysfunctional, horrible working system designed to perpetually make people feel awful.”
You can watch The Roast of Tom Brady below:
