To illustrate your point, the way Jeff Ross became known as the ne plus ultra of roast dudes was through the following sequence of events at Jerry Stiller’s Friars’ Club roast:

I think that part of the "joke" of roasts is that, deep down, you are supposed to respect the person getting roasted/the other people roasting them. Seth Meyers laying into Barrack Obama and Joe Biden at the WHCD is funny, because at the end of the day most people have at least some level of respect for those figures.…