On Sunday, comedian Aidy Bryant made her award show hosting debut at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
And it’s since largely been agreed amongst fans that Aidy — who is best known for her former work on Saturday Night Live — did an incredible job, especially in light of other recent controversial hosting gigs.
One of the most popular segments from Aidy’s monologue featured her jokingly attempting to “roast” a bunch of the celebrities in attendance at the award show — except her “roasts” weren’t actual roasts.
She said in a gleeful tone, “Since this is my first time hosting an award show, I did wanna try some of the classics. You know, like roasting some of the celebrities in the crowd... Uh oh, you getting scared?”
After pointing around the room and asking, “Who’s first? Who’s first?” Aidy began, “Let’s see, from May December, Natalie Portman is here!”
The crowd loudly applauded Natalie’s introduction — only for Aidy to immediately “roast” her by saying, “Hey Natalie, you stupid bitch!”
Natalie — as well as the entire audience — burst out laughing, while Aidy followed up with: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I think I’m supposed to try and make it clever.”
But the comedian went on to do the same hilarious bit over and over, drawing attention to the likes of Sterling K. Brown, Charles Melton, and Greta Lee.
“Oh wow, Sterling K. Brown — more like Stupid K. Bitch,” Aidy joked, while Sterling clapped and laughed out loud. Aidy continued, “And Charles Melton, everyone wants to have sex with you, you stupid bitch!” with Charles bursting into fits of laughter, too.
And Aidy finally added, “Let’s see, Greta Lee is here! Greta from Past Lives! Greta, you are a slob and a slut and a stupid bitch.” Greta was filmed mouthing, “It’s true” as she reacted to the joke.
Aidy then added, “I’m sorry, I’m not a good roaster,” before going on to continue her monologue.
Well, among all the discourse around Aidy’s “roasts,” a now-viral tweet from Variety has sparked a big divide.
On Sunday, Variety tweeted: “‘Hey, Natalie [Portman] you stupid b*tch!’ Aidy Bryant jokingly attempted (and failed) to roast celebrities like Portman, Greta Lee and Charles Melton at this year's #SpiritAwards during her first gig as an awards show host.”
The wording of Variety’s tweet — which sparked some negative responses toward Aidy’s jokes — left fans confused. Some people took issue with the lack of context in the post and accused the outlet of making Aidy’s comment seem “so much worse than it was.”
This prompted users to begin sharing Natalie’s actual reaction to the joke in defense of Aidy. “Please, it went well,” one person said. “Natalie and everyone was literally laughing... all her jokes did well what is this article ?” another wrote.
However, other users defended Variety, arguing that fans had simply misinterpreted its tweet.
“Why is everyone mad about this? I think you’re all misunderstanding this tweet?? She did try to roast celebrities, and she DID fail, that was literally the joke,” one person wrote.
“I think everyone is misreading this tweet - it’s reporting that Aidy attempted and failed at roasting, which was Aidy’s whole bit (that she was failing at roasting), not that the bit failed,” another user said.
“Why is everyone freaking out about this? The ‘(and failed)’ is clearly describing Aidy’s bit (being too nice and quirky to properly roast any celebs) not her execution of said bit (which clearly went very well),” someone else added.