Historical Roasts season 1 premiere recap: Abraham Lincoln
By Wade Wainio
Netflix series Historical Roasts starts with a bang as they roast America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln.
Hosted by comedian and “Roastmaster General” Jeffrey Ross, Historical Roasts will not be for everyone. However, that’s almost the point. The first episode delves into history, pokes fun at it and assures that no one is spared. In that sense, yes, it is indeed like a roast. There is, of course, a twist in that it is roasting famous historical characters.
Here, Abraham Lincoln is played by Bob Saget. While most people know him from the sickeningly wholesome sitcom Full House, his style is generally the opposite of wholesome. In other words, it may be sickening in the other direction. Nevertheless, his jokes don’t tend to hit very hard in this episode — possibly because he barely wore his trademark lucky stovepipe hat. Still, there is some respectful nodding in Lincoln’s direction. As Ross notes, “No one’s trying to pull down Lincoln’s statues.” That’s true, right?
Interestingly, Lincoln’s life had plenty of tragedy. For example, his mother died from “milk sickness,” which happens when someone drinks milk from cows that have eaten white snakeroot. Oddly, the episode makes no mention of snakeroot, which seems like a missed opportunity. Then again, hardly anybody would know what snakeroot even is. The point is, there was lots of death surrounding Lincoln, and he was himself assassinated. Also, no one commented about the famous rhyme about Lincoln and turpentine. That seems like it would have been a given!
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Mary Todd
Next, Historical Roasts features Natasha Leggero as Mary Todd Lincoln. Scandalously, Mary Todd comes equipped with a bottle of booze and some Xanax. This is because, behind the scenes, Mary Todd Lincoln dealt with mental health and physical addiction issues (including an opium addiction, and at least one suicide attempt). While the Full House jokes are historically irrelevant, the presence of Saget and Stamos makes them all but inevitable. Also, because it is still a roast, she does trash talk Lincoln a little.
Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass
Yamaneika Saunders dominates as Harriet Tubman, and she discusses how the former slave became famous for the underground railroad (which Ross previously called the “Tubway”). In addition to brandishing a gun, she discusses whether Harriet Tubman should appear on money (a fairly popular proposal, though one wonders if a symbol of freedom should appear on our dirty, dirty money). Surprisingly, a young Frederick Douglas (Jerron Horton) also makes an appearance, and actually delivers some of the best lines of the episode. He critiques the historical Lincoln for hesitating to give black soldiers equal pay, saying, “they put you on the penny because you’re cheap!” Now if that’s not a successful burn, what is?
John Wilkes Booth and final thoughts
Next, Historical Roasts has John Stamos as John Wilkes Booth. Yes, that John Stamos, and yes, that John Wilkes Booth. He discusses the Booth family’s acting background, but shies away from his own motives for shooting good ol’ Honest Abe. Instead he offers a literal song and dance routine, as part of his play MacBooth! It’s actually a pretty funny moment, and definitely reminds us that it’s all in good fun. As the episode ends, we’re reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s famous line: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
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Saget’s Lincoln also reminds us to not be too tough on the man. He did, after all, take a bullet for his beliefs, so we probably needn’t dwell on his shortcomings much as a historical figure. He may not have been a perfect man, and his life was not a simple one, but he’s not simply regarded as a great man because he occupied the presidency. He made some tough decisions, being in a unique position in his time. In any case, this was a strong premiere episode. It had a fair amount of decent jokes and a handful of historical facts sprinkled in for good measure and comic effect.
What are your thoughts on Historical Roasts? Let us know in the comments!