On a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, roastmaster Jeff Ross spoke about the Netflix Tom Brady roast, revealing why Brady signed on and what happened when the two crossed paths afterward.
Ross told Rogan that landing Brady took years of patience. “I’ve been big game hunting Tom Brady for years. It took a couple years. He retired, unretired, but I kept him on the line.”
The moment that changed things came when Ross noticed Brady scrolling through roast content on social media during a Super Bowl. He said, “I caught him on a Super Bowl Sunday. He was playing in the Super Bowl and I saw him looking at some jokes on Instagram that I posted. I’m like, this is where he goes to relax. He goes to the roast and I’d heard that. He won the game and I was like, I think it’s time. And then we reeled him in and he did it.”
When Ross asked Brady directly why he wanted to participate, the quarterback made his reasoning plain. “He goes, ‘I want to bring comedy back. I’m sick of the woke s**t and cancel [culture]. I want to make comedy like fun again.'”
Ross said Brady understood exactly what the roast format was and committed to it fully.
What unfolded on the night went beyond even the roastmaster’s expectations. Brady looked visibly uneasy at several points, especially when jokes turned to his divorce and the widely circulated story about his ex-wife leaving him for a jiu-jitsu instructor.
While Brady could absorb material about his football career and legacy, the other territory was clearly more uncomfortable.
Ross did not sugarcoat it. “I will admit that roast was harsher than even I expected. It was a bloodbath.”
When Ross ran into Brady after the roast aired, he found the quarterback still sitting with the weight of it. “I saw Tom the other day and I said, it’s time to take your win. He was like, it was so harsh. It was tough on my family. I go, I get all that but you wanted to do it to bring comedy back. You did that. 1.6 billion viewing minutes.”
The numbers, Rogan argued, were massive. He said: “Think about how many things are on Netflix. That roast was the most watched thing in the history of Netflix. And it was because it was so funny. It wasn’t just because it was Tom Brady, which of course made a lot, but it wasn’t just because all these great comics were on it, which of course meant a lot. It was so good that people were telling people about it.”
Ross told Rogan he sees the roast as something that will endure. “It’s like a great Super Bowl. It’s going to be around forever. Netflix leaves it up.”
