Roast Battle Addendum:
It's no surprise that a lot of the current toxic comics seem to be associated with or drawn to this cesspool of self aggrandizement. I've never been a fan of roasts. Even the "classic" ones

The old days were the worst of mid-Century "Boys Club", Rat Pack nonsense. Even when women were allowed to participate it was in the realm of "hey man, she can keep up with us, she's one of the guys". It was elitist and weirdly sad, but at least they used to be private.

turning "roasts" into public entertainment was capitalizing on that insider, clique, desire to be part of the cool crowd that is the core of why I hate them. You'd envy the people who EARNED the right to bust somebody's balls.

the mutation of the roast, and into the "battles" is an even weirder phenomenon. They aren't about ribbing your friends or people in your circle. It's a shock off. It's a hit any target in the way as quickly and brutally as possible to gain points. It's a first person shooter

The "Battle" variation is almost the exact opposite of the original roasts, but while still maintaining and magnifying the worst aspects. The personal is not totally impersonal and as a result more offensive, vile and shallow. It became a weirdly "safe" space to insult people

it literally became a game, a way to score points figuratively and literally, but lifting yourself up on the shoulder, heads and backs of other people, even people who weren't actively participating, all in the guise of a safe "game"

It trickled down to the local level and got even more pathetic. So many of the jokes (if not ALL the jokes) are about perception of status and success, or lack thereof. Watching two local comics insult each other about their "careers" has been some of the saddest things I've seen

You'd also get this predicable formula of jokes, mostly because the participants didn't actually know each other or anything about it each, and every "joke" boiled down to "(Comic) is so unsuccessful something something kid/fucking/911/Nazi/current offensive news reference"

OR "Comic is gay". Literally every single roast I've seen. Anyway, long ramble again, sorry.