Whitney Cummings stole the show with her digs

Last year at the roast of David Hasselhoff, Whitney Cummings stole the show with her digs on the Hoff's manly parts, and if you watch tonight's roast of Donald Trump you'll see she hasn't lost any steam.

Last night’s Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump had its highs (Snoop Dogg) and its lows (The Situation). The Jersey Shore star got in trouble early when a joke about fellow roaster Whitney Cummings received less laughs than Whitney Cummings’ pity clap to break the silence. (Never rely on a grenade joke, Sitch, if you think there’s a chance you might bomb.) The crowd booed loudest, however, when the Situation started a joke about Trump’s hot wife. “The best part is, she married you for love … Yep, she loves money.” All white people who act black look alike to me.”

Sure, these (occasional) comedies can swear more than those on Dean Martin’s old variety-hour brand of roasts, but in many ways the material presented in this Trump-tastic edition was somehow safer than ever before.

Sure, there were familiar faces tonight that known each other from previous events (Jeffrey Ross, Lisa Lampanelli, Whitney Cummings), but there were also a new cadre of performers that had tangential relationships to Donald Trump (Marlee Matlin) and some that had absolutely nothing to do with Trump at all (Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Anthony Jeselnik).

The assembly line structure goes as follows: Roastmaster Seth MacFarlane makes a few jokes about the upcoming performer, said performer mocks everyone on the dais, tells a few jokes about a rich man they never met before that night, tells said rich man they were only kidding, and then ends his/her set. Lather, rinse, repeat. This meant that 80 percent of each presenter’s time was spent talking about the rest of the panel, each member taking part in the overall roasting circle jerk. Personally, I enjoyed the sets by Snoop Dogg and roast newcomer Jeselnik the most, since those were actually funny. Absolutely perfect delivery there.

Larry King didn’t die (literally) onstage, so that’s a plus. Whitney Cummings substituted “volume” for “comedy” in her performance (as noted by Jeffrey Ross), and Lampanelli’s act is at this point as shocking as the latest James Blunt record. No, not Donald Trump’s lack of any noticeable reaction at anything going at any point, but the absence of deceased comic and long-time dais member Greg Giraldo.