It was supposed to be Rob Lowe’s big night. Instead, the 2016 Comedy Central special became the roast of Ann Coulter by sheer force of gravity. If you’ve seen the clips, you know it wasn't just a standard comedy set. It was a car crash in slow motion. Usually, these roasts have a vibe of "we pick on you because we love you," but that night? There was zero love.
The air in the room was thick. You could actually feel the audience's discomfort through the screen.
Why was Ann Coulter even there?
Honestly, everyone asked that. Even the roasters. Ann Coulter wasn't a friend of Rob Lowe. She wasn't a Hollywood staple. She was a conservative pundit there to promote her book, In Trump We Trust. Bad move. She later admitted she had never even seen a roast before agreeing to do it. Imagine walking into a lion's den without knowing what a lion is. That is basically what happened.
Rob Lowe later joked that she was there because "the right-to-lifers wanted everyone to see what an abortion looks like up close." Ouch.
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The roasters who didn't hold back
The dais was packed with professional killers. Nikki Glaser, Jeff Ross, Pete Davidson, and even Jewel.
- Nikki Glaser delivered one of the most cited lines: "Ann Coulter has written 11 books—12 if you include Mein Kampf."
- Pete Davidson kept it simple and brutal: "Ann Coulter and no black people? What are we roasting? A cross?"
- Peyton Manning, the legendary QB, even got a dig in, claiming Coulter won the Kentucky Derby earlier that year.
The "bombing" everyone talks about
When it was finally Coulter’s turn to speak, things went from awkward to agonizing. Most people at these events use professional writers. Comedy Central actually provided Coulter with a script written by Mike Lawrence and Earl Skakel. She threw it out.
She decided to write her own material.
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It didn't work. At all. She tried to lean into her political persona, making jokes about Hillary Clinton and immigration that were met with literal silence or boos. At one point, she tried to plug her book and the audience turned on her completely. It wasn't just that the jokes weren't funny; the timing was off. The energy was dead. It was the first time in roast history where the "roastee" felt like they were being bullied rather than celebrated, mostly because Coulter didn't seem to be in on the joke.
Did the comedians go too far?
This is where it gets complicated. Even some people who dislike Coulter’s politics felt the night got a bit dark. Jimmy Carr told her she should "kill herself." That’s a heavy thing to say, even at a roast.
Jewel summed it up perfectly during her set: "I do want to say, as a feminist, that I can't support everything that's been said tonight. But as someone who hates Ann Coulter, I'm delighted."
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The fallout was immediate:
- Social media went nuclear.
- The "Coultergeist" puppet was born in the after-show.
- Coulter claimed the whole thing was "boring" rather than offensive.
She told The Hollywood Reporter that she didn't care about the insults, but she did complain that the edit made her look worse than she felt she performed. Though, honestly, the raw footage tells a pretty clear story.
What we can learn from the disaster
If you’re ever invited to a televised roast, hire a writer. Seriously. The roast of Ann Coulter—or the Rob Lowe roast that she hijacked—serves as a masterclass in why "reading the room" is a survival skill. Coulter tried to use a comedy stage as a political soapbox, and the comedians treated her like an intruder.
If you want to revisit the madness, look for the unedited sets. You’ll see a level of tension that rarely makes it to cable TV.
Next steps for the curious:
- Watch the Nikki Glaser set: It’s widely considered the "win" of the night.
- Compare the "turned down" jokes: Look up the script the writers originally gave Coulter; the jokes were actually much better for her "brand" than what she ended up saying.
- Check out the Pete Davidson reaction shots: His face during Coulter's set became a meme for a reason.