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In 2001, just weeks after the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, the New York Friars Club went ahead with its scheduled Hugh Hefner Roast. The Friars Club is a club located in New York City, which has become famous for its risqué roasts of celebrities. It was founded in 1904, and has since roasted such notable celebrities as Milton Berle, Sammy Davis, Jr., George Burns, Johnny Carson, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Harry Belafonte, Jerry Lewis, Chevy Chase, Richard Pryor, Pamela Anderson, and Donald Trump. In recent years, their roasts have been televised on Comedy Central, and members of the public have even been invited to attend the live tapings.

Roasts are events where a person of choice is subject to public ridicule, praise and insults, and numerous stories being told about them – whether true or not – by those who know them best. As the Friars Club says, “We only roast the ones we love.” Indeed, despite the often cruel nature of the jokes told, the overall tone of roasts is intended to be one of admiration and congratulations.

When Hefner took the stage in late 2001, nobody quite knew what to expect. The nation was still reeling from the effects of the terrorist attacks. Would such an event still be funny, everyone wondered? If it was, were audience members even allowed to laugh? Was it too soon to begin enjoying oneself again? As it turns out, laughter proved to be the best medicine for the nation in trauma. Even a Gilbert Gottfried joke about being unable to get a direct flight and having to stop in at the Empire State Building in New York City got some laughs.

The list of celebrities and comedians who took to the stage at the Hugh Hefner Roast is a long and varied one: Jimmy Kimmel, Drew Carey, Adam Carolla, Gilbert Gottfried, Ice-T, Donald Trump, Cedric the Entertainer, and Rob Schneider all took their turns poking fun at the Playboy magnate. Some got more laughs that others – Ice-T’s joke about raping all the white women in the audience did not go over well, but Gottfried was able to bring the show back to life by uttering the same line.

Many devoted fans of the Friars Club roasts cite Hefner’s as their all-time favourite. The reason for that is largely due to Gottfried’s stealing of the show in the last minutes by telling his version of the famous Aristocrats joke. While much of the vulgar joke was censored when it aired on television, the DVD version of the roast has the joke in its entirety. Gottfried’s telling of the joke was so popular, in fact that a documentary was made around its premise. In “The Aristocrats,” comedians across the country, from Bob Saget to Paul Reiser, try their hand at telling the joke. The film ends with Gottfried’s infamous performance.

Despite fears that it was too soon for the event, the Hugh Hefner roast proved to be exactly the light-hearted medicine the country needed to begin the healing process. While the DVD of the entire show is available for purchase, highlights of the roast are also free to download on YouTube.

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