Flavor Flav: Roastee, Environmentalist
Comedy Central roasts have been a big hit for the network, with funny comedians roasting some big names: Hugh Hefner, Pam Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, Denis Leary, and last year, William Shatner have all been honored. When Comedy central announced their new roastee yesterday, I literally spit my coffee all over my shirt: Flavor Flav (pictured above, in a typical moment).
Yes, the man who up until about two years ago was best known for wearing oversize clocks, and who is now known for wearing oversize clocks and appearing on cable reality shows, is apparently prestigious enough to follow in the footsteps of Hef, Pam, and Captain Kirk. To quote Jon Stewart, whenever he sees something that blows his mind: “Whaaaaaaa!?”
I don’t want to diss flav, as I am sure he is a nice guy, and he will certainly be a ripe target for whoever Comedy Central gets to roast him, but this decision seems like a terrible lovechild of corporate synergy and desperation. Flav’s “career” was reinvigorated by his appearances on VH1 reality shows, culminating in the smash hit Bachelor knock-off Flavor Of Love. VH1 is a sister network to Comedy Central, Flavor Flav loves attention, Comedy Central needed someone easy to make fun of, and they needed them soon. Seems like a simple choice to me.
But it gets better! This years Comedy Central Roast will be the very first carbon neutral roast! Comedy Central will team up with NativeEnergy to purchase carbon offsets and make this years roast environmentally friendly. I guess you could say this year’s “roast” won’t contribute to “warming” the planet (har har… ugh).
Maybe Flav will switch out his clock for a day with a gizmo that measures the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Or, even better, maybe one of the contestants on next seasons Flavor Of Love will be given the num de plume “carbon neutral,” Which could lead to its own spin-off: “I love Carbon Neutralilty.”
Or maybe you can watch Flav feel some "love" at this year’s Comedy Central Roast on August 12th. You just might help the environment… at the very least you get to hear a lot of clock jokes.
By Alex Weprin
