Last night friends and longtime compatriots of Joan Rivers were invited to the CBS Studios Lot in Studio City, CA for the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers. In previous years, Comedy Central has hosted roast tribute events in honor of actors and comedians but this year they’ve pulled out all the stops for one of the most iconic, most enduring comics alive today … barely. Here are some of the folks who came out for the Roast of Joan Rivers last night:

I was very lucky to attend last night’s taping and shared some of the zingers that were said about Joan Rivers on my Twitter account last night. There were so many more that I would’ve loved to have shared but they were wholly inappropriate and grossly offensive … and that was exactly the point. Whitney Cummings, sidekick to Chelsea Handler, was my fave roaster of the night … her bit was ENTIRELY hilarious and horribly offensive. Mario Cantone, tho I love him, was the worst roaster of the bunch. Kathy Griffin did an amazing job as host of the event but Joan, naturally, stole the show. A woman who has been in the biz for as long as she has and has achieved so much success absolutely deserves to be honored in this manner … with tasteless joke after offensive slur all night long. She looked like she had the time of her life. It was really a great event. I’ll have more personal commentary a little later on today. But I have to let you all know that the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers airs on Comedy Central on Sunday August 9. While I’m sure it will be HEAVILY censored, be on the look out for the uncensored version of the roast that will air in the wee, wee hours of Comedy Central after it premieres on the network in a couple of weeks. It’s funny, y’all. I can’t wait to see it again myself :)

[Photo credit: Wireimage]