A lot of people who’d rather be stuck in an elevator full of their exes than listen to Ann Coulter talk for a second likely made an exception to watch her weird appearance on the Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe. There, Coulter had her time at the mic, and, revolting politics aside, simply wasn’t funny. As the Muse notes, it was actually a (greatly deserved) heckle in the middle of her set that brought on the biggest laugh.
Coulter certainly knew she wasn’t among her supporters when she started her roasting: the other roasters had made it abundantly clear that her presence would not go ignored, and rather made her Rob Lowe’s unofficial impromptu co-roastee.
When she got onstage, she said, “Thank you, I want to welcome everybody to the Ann Coulter Roast with Rob Lowe.” Hilariously, it was Jewel in particular who had the widest range of harsh words for the conservative political commentator. Among Jewel’s jabs (quotes via the Hollywood Reporter) were:
As a feminist, I can’t support everything that’s being said up here tonight. But as somebody who hates Ann Coulter, I’m delighted.
and:
Jeff Ross is going to party like it’s 1999. Ann Coulter is going to vote like It’s 1899.
and:
Ann you do look great though, you’re almost as thin as Donald Trump’s chance at winning the election.
Nikki Glaser also aimed more than one insult her way, with barbs like “Ann Coulter has written 11 books. Twelve if you count Mein Kampf” and “The only person you will ever make happy is the Mexican who digs your grave.”
Rob Riggle, meanwhile, compared her to a musty corpse-businessman:
Holy shit, is that Ann Coulter? Ann Coulter is here, which can mean only one thing: someone must’ve said her name three times. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
So anyway. You can see what the climate was like surrounding Ann Coulter’s participation. Coulter herself tried to jab her peers — including Glaser, about whom she made a poorly delivered joke about sleeping with Hollywood producers. But the heckle in question came when (surprise!) she made an oddly racially charged joke the about the quality of SNL plummeting. The joke:
I once thought Pete Davidson was just like Obama: bi-racial goofball who ruined a once-beloved institution, but it turns out I was wrong: Pete’s not bi-racial.
To which Pete Davidson yelled, “haha good one,” which, despite not being a particularly punchline-heavy comeback, elicited a far louder burst of laughter than anything Coulter did.
Coulter spoke to TMZ today, claiming that she doesn’t “know how they edited it, but [she] knows [she] got laughs while [she] was there,” suggesting that she “suspected” that they cut out some of the laughter to make her look less well-received. But it certainly looks like the jokes got exactly the amount of laughter they deserved. Alas, watching Ann Coulter tank may be the most worthwhile Coulter-oriented viewing experience to date.
Watch the whole event.