During the Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin taping in Los Angeles last weekend, many jokes were made about the infamous voicemail that the actor left his then-11-year-old daughter Ireland in 2007, calling her a “rude, thoughtless little pig.” Every time it happened, Alec Baldwin would make the same faux-shocked expression in the direction of Ireland, now 23, who was dying laughing in the audience.
Then, about midway through the special, which will air on Comedy Central this Sunday night at 10 p.m., Ireland Baldwin surprised the crowd by taking the podium to get her revenge.
“Hi Dad, I’m Ireland,” she began. “It’s good to be here. I almost didn’t know about it because I haven’t checked my voicemails from my dad for the last, like, 12 years?” She went on to joke that she had “a lot in common” with the other roasters on the stage—including Caitlyn Jenner, Robert De Niro and others—because “like them, I don’t really know you that well either.”
“A lot of people know my dad as that guy from the Mission: Impossible movies or that guy from 30 Rock,” Ireland added. “I know him as that guy from like, half of my birthday parties?”
Alec could only pretend to laugh at that one.
Last year, Demi Moore showed up as a surprise roaster for her ex-husband Bruce Willis’ Comedy Central roast, joking memorably that their marriage was “like The Sixth Sense: you were dead the whole time.” Ireland’s mother Kim Basinger did not show up to roast her ex.
“It’s not easy to be the daughter of an iconic movie star," Ireland added later. "But I’m not here to talk about my mom and her Oscar.”
After the voicemail leaked in 2007, Baldwin made a public apology, writing, “I’m sorry, as everyone who knows me is aware, for losing my temper with my child. I have been driven to the edge by parental alienation for many years now. You have to go through this to understand. (Although I hope you never do.) I am sorry for what happened.”
In a 2012 interview with Page Six Magazine, Ireland downplayed the incident, saying that “people made it out to be a way bigger deal than it was” and that her father had “said stuff like that before just because he’s frustrated.”
Later in the show, comedian Jeff Ross joked that President Donald Trump has actually been doing an Alec Baldwin impression for the past few years. “He calls people names, he yells at the press, he married an immigrant half his age,” Ross said from the stage. “The only difference is that Trump calls his daughter a fox, not a pig.”
“Great job, Ireland,” he added. “You didn’t oink once.”
For more, listen to Roastmaster General Jeff Ross on The Last Laugh podcast below: