This summer, Die Hard star Bruce Willis is going to get viciously roasted. As someone who grew up idolizing the dude, only to be genuinely saddened by the trajectory of his later career, this is pretty damn exciting. The Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis will hopefully crack some well-deserved jokes about the actor’s apparent disinterest in his later work, while also celebrating him as an onscreen legend. The stand-ups go hard in these events, but there’s also a genuine sense of appreciation found in all of them.
Willis was the epitome of the American male archetype here to save the day—but that was before utter schlock like A Good Day to Die Hard. His career has definitely waned, and surely the comics here won’t be able to help themselves. John McClane was someone kids dreamed of being; to see Willis get clowned for tossing good work like that overboard in his later career will definitely be cathartic.
According to Deadline, the event will be recorded in Los Angeles before being broadcast on Comedy Central this summer. “This ain’t the first time I’ll be tied to a chair and held hostage by a group of humorless assholes for a couple hours,” Willis joked in a statement. The #BruceWillisRoast hashtag is already up and running, which frankly, seems a bit premature, but so be it. Gotta start those promos early.
“Bruce has survived terrorists, Armageddon, romance and death itself,” said Comedy Central president Kent Alterman. “Yet, nothing has prepared him for this Roast.”
Willis, who can currently be seen in Eli Roth’s Death Wish remake, will join the roasted ranks of Charlie Sheen, Justin Bieber, James Franco, Rob Lowe, and Donald Trump.
