Leslie Jones, 59, prefers to roast rental homes over people. Luckily, her new HGTV show Roast My Rental features houses that are more than ready to be mocked.
“It is easier to roast the rentals than roast the people, because in roasting the rental, I kind of roast the people, but they understand where it’s coming from,” Jones told Obsessed: The Podcast. “So it’s not like it’s personal.”
Watch the full interview with Leslie Jones on YouTube:
Jones was a cast member and writer on SNL from 2014 to 2019, for which she received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also starred in 2016’s Ghostbusters alongside SNL alums Kristin Wiig and Kate McKinnon, as well as comedian Melissa McCarthy.
She’s currently a co-host for the reality show Roast My Rental, where she visits atrocious short-term vacation rental houses and delivers brutally honest reviews to her co-host, designer Jasmine Roth, whose team then has 72 hours to renovate the property. Roast My Rental aired on HGTV July 24 and is available to stream on HBO Max.
One of Jones’ inspirations for Roast My Rental was roasting people’s Zoom backgrounds during the pandemic. She said critiquing settings instead of people feels better to her. Still, she sometimes feels bad after delivering a particularly harsh verdict on a property.
Jones wouldn’t say whether she was asked to participate in Netflix’s controversial Roast of Kevin Hart, but either way—like fellow comic Wanda Sykes—she would have turned it down. “I don’t do stuff like that,” she said.
MAGA-friendly White comedians Tony Hinchliffe, 42, and Shane Gillis, 38, came under fire after telling racist jokes during the event, leading to widespread criticism of the roast as a whole.
“I felt like it was weird that all the Black comedians who came on stage told jokes about the people who were there, but then a lot of the white comedians who came on told jokes about Black people,” former Daily Show anchor Trevor Noah said on his podcast, What Now?. “I was like, ‘Wait, wait, wait. I thought it was The Roast of Kevin Hart.”
Jones said she preferred the old Dean Martin roasts because it felt like the comedians knew each other and were trying to make each other laugh. Now, she said, “These roasts now are just mean.”
“If you see me roasting people, I’m making them laugh, too,” she added. “You know what I’m saying? If I do something mean, I don’t like that. That doesn’t make me feel good.”
Unlike what she’s doing on HGTV, Jones said, “I don’t think those types of roasts are loving.”
Roast My Rental is streaming now on HBO Max and tickets for Leslie Jones’ “I’m Hot” stand-up tour are available on her website.
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