Instagram James Franco, announcing in an Instagram video that he will be the honored guest at a Comedy Central roast.It is not necessarily customary, at the end of a star-studded celebrity roast, for its honoree to take the podium after a long night of being lovingly insulted by his friends and colleagues, and retaliate by reciting Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl†in its entirety. But Comedy Central brought that possibility one step closer to coming true, confirming on Wednesday morning that the next featured guest in its roast series would be James Franco, the actor, writer, director and student of life.
Mr. Franco, who has starred in comedies like “This Is the End†and “Pineapple Express†as well as serious films like “127 Hours,†“Howl†and “Milk,†and will have his first book of poetry published by Graywolf Press next year, let the announcement slip in an Instagram video posted on Tuesday night.
In his trademark laconic half-mumbled style, Mr. Franco appeared to say in the video: “Hey, yo, what’s up? I’m going to get roasted on Comedy Central. Be sure to check it out. They wanted me to tell you that. All right. Ha ha.â€
Comedy Central let that linger in cyberspace for a few hours, as Internet denizens wondered whether Mr. Franco really would follow in the footsteps of previous roast honorees like Roseanne Barr, Charlie Sheen, David Hasselhoff and Joan Rivers. The network then followed up with a news release that said its roast of Mr. Franco would be recorded in Los Angeles in August and make its debut Sept. 2.
Kent Alterman, Comedy Central’s president of content development and original programming, said in a statement: “If only James Franco was a more successful, multi-hyphenated, incessant creative risk taker in different media, he’d be the perfect person to roast. Oh well… I suppose we’ll just have to make do.â€
How many jokes will be made about Mr. Franco’s ill-fated effort as a co-host of the Academy Awards with Anne Hathaway? Find out on Labor Day.
