Last week, we got dolled up and made our way to Gold Reef City's Lyric Theatre for the Comedy Central Roast of Somizi. Despite the nature of the roast, the real intention of the event was to honor an entertainment veteran who is loved by many.
In order to properly do both things, Comedy Central Africa called on a number of famous (and not so famous) faces to do so. Among the panelists were former minister Fikile Mbalula, Metro FM's DJ Fresh, Nomzamo Mbatha, Skhumba, Kurt Darren, Ntsiki Mazwai, Schalk Bezuidenhout, Joanne Joseph and Gareth Cliff who served as the night's roast master.
As the night went on, each panelist took their spot on the podium to take no-holds-barred digs at each other and the night's honoree, Somizi Mhlongo, who was teased about everything from his homosexuality and his age, to the age of his fiance, Mohale (who happens to be over 20 years younger than Somizi) as well as the incredible brevity of his 75-page autobiography.
The night's most noteworthy performances came from Skhumba, Joanne Joseph and Ntsiki Mazwai. Naturally, Skhumba shut things down and had the audience damn-near peeing themselves with laughter.
Former eNCA news anchor Joanne Joseph also had one heck of a noteworthy performance with a mix of jokes perfectly balanced between witty and funny as well as some great ad libs. The running joke of the night was that no one knew who she was or why she was even there but after this roast, hers will certainly be a name to remember.
Shhhuuuuu when will you ever get to smash a guy like @MapsMaponyane in your life? LOL well @schalkiebez has, catch all the #RoastZA 🔥🔥🔥 at 21:00 on 7 May on CC and on 8 May on Showmax: https://t.co/Rjm3aFwPaL pic.twitter.com/RnXSreWHn9
— TheHomeOfComedy (@ComedyCentralAF) April 29, 2018
Mazwai on the other hand had quite a disappointing performance but that is perhaps out fault for walking into this with expectations about how she was going to put everyone in the place. If anything, she did more for the other panelists by being there for them to roast (more than they roasted Somizi).
In addition to the never-ending Ntsiki jokes were a number of jokes about Gareth Cliff and Maps Maponyane being gay (yawn) as well as Fikile Mbalula's never-ending pursuit for youth.
The most hilarious jokes of the evening however were the ones we never saw coming; including jokes about how having a "closeted" boyfriend allows Mbatha to keep her virginity, jokes about DJ Fresh's rumored child from an affair and jokes about DJ Fresh's belief that having sex once a day, every single day, keeps you healthy.
The Comedy Central Roast is not for the faint of heart so if you get offended easily, don't say we didn't warn you. You can watch it when it airs on 7 May, 2018 at 9pm CAT on DSTV channel 122 and you can watch the longer, uncut version on ShowMax the next day, 8 May 2018.
If you don't already have a ShowMax account, sign up here. If you have a DSTV Compact account and you link it to that account, you will get a discounted monthly subscription fee of R49 (p/m).
Main image credit: instagram.com/somizi/