The Golden Age of the Celebrity Roast

When it was cool to insult your friends

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Dean Martin looks on as his pal, Don Rickles - a.k.a. “The Merchant of Venom” - skewers him at one of the Rat Packer’s celebrity roasts

When cruel insults were the name of the game

The premise was simple.

1. Choose a celebrity victim guest.

2. Invite their equally-famous friends to an event where the guest of honour is in the hot spot.

3. Insult, laugh at and humiliate said guest all in the name of good fun.

This, ladies and gentlemen, was the stuff that Celebrity Roasts were made of.

A staple of the 1970s, and a trend that continued on for a good decade or more, this strange yet addictive form of entertainment was the epitome of a time when hurt feelings were the casualties of a sharp tongue. It epitomized the era, with its brash, take-no-prisoners affect, leaving bruised and batt…