Warning: This article contains spoilers for Hacks season 3, episode 3.
The Hacks season 3 episode “The Roast of Deborah Vance” happens to have aired just a few days after Netflix brought back the TV roast format for The Roast of Tom Brady. Hacks season 3, episode 3 continues Deborah’s career comeback as she gets roasted by a star-studded line-up of famous comedians, including both real-life comics playing themselves and fictional comics within the Hacks universe. The Roast of Tom Brady was hosted by Kevin Hart and “Roastmaster General” Jeff Ross, and the roasters included Nikki Glaser, Tom Segura, and Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy.
In “The Roast of Deborah Vance,” Mario Cantone is the roastmaster and the roasters include some of Hacks season 3’s best guest stars: Patton Oswalt, Natasha Leggero, Andy Kindler, Steph Tolev, and Naomi Ekperigin. She was also roasted by her own estranged daughter, D.J., and Jack Danby, the rising star gunning for the late-night hosting job that Deborah wants. Not only did Deborah’s roast air in the same week as Brady’s roast; it was arguably even funnier.
Netflix streamed The Roast of Tom Brady live on May 5, then Max aired Hacks’ roast episode just four days later on May 9. The Roast of Tom Brady was only announced in mid-April as part of the Netflix is a Joke comedy festival, so the Hacks team couldn’t have planned this – it was just a fun coincidence. This is similar to Curb Your Enthusiasm’s final season coincidentally airing its parody of the Will Smith Oscars slap on the same night as the 2024 Oscars.
Both roasts had their share of funny moments, but Hacks’ “Roast of Deborah Vance” was arguably better than Netflix’s Roast of Tom Brady. Brady’s line-up of roasters was mostly made up of non-comedians like Kim Kardashian and Ben Affleck, whose jokes fell flat (Kardashian was even booed, which Netflix had to edit around), whereas Deborah was roasted by a panel of seasoned comics. The Roast of Tom Brady lasted for three long hours, whereas Deborah’s roast was edited down to a snappy montage containing only the very best jokes from the roast.
Plus, Deborah can actually take a joke. She didn’t get up halfway through the roast and whisper in one of the roasters’ ears about which jokes they could or couldn’t make, like Brady did when Jeff Ross mentioned Robert Kraft’s 2019 soliciting prostitution charges. Being roasted inherently requires the ability to take a joke, and in Hacks season 3, episode 3, Deborah took her roasters’ jokes in stride; she didn’t try to police which joke targets were off limits.