Meshel Laurie gets roasted by James Weir on Can We Be Real podcast

Comedian Meshel Laurie has been given a harsh dressing down on-air in a no-holds-barred roasting by news.com.au’s James Weir.

Australian comedian and broadcaster Meshel Laurie on The Project.

Australian comedian Meshel Laurie has been roasted on-air in a no-holds-barred insult-slinging contest.

The broadcaster invited news.com.au columnist James Weir to perform a down and dirty roast on her new podcast — Can We Be Real? – where “nothing is off-limits”.

“When I walked in today, I barely recognised you,” Weir began. “For a split-second, I thought Jeanne Little had been exhumed from the grave and was here to tell us there’s an underground KFC at the cemetery.”

“I mean, why are you taking your anger out on your eyebrows? It’s not like they fired you from The Project.”

Australian entertainer Jeanne Little was famous for her rake-thin look and pencilled eyebrows.

Laurie has hosted some of the biggest radio shows in the country and been a regular on TV for two decades, working alongside household names like Rove McManus, Dave Hughes and Carrie Bickmore.

“What hurts worse: that they all now earn millions of dollars more than you? Or that they all now pretend they don’t know you?” Weir said of Laurie’s former co-stars. “There are more vowels in your name than people in this industry who are willing to work with you.”

Since bowing out as a regular panellist on The Project in 2019 because of burn out, Laurie has been outspoken about TV network bosses being intolerant of her political views. Her comments on social media have also attracted criticism from other media personalities like Em Rusciano and Abbie Chatfield.

“You’ve developed quite a liking for inflammatory, late-night Facebook rants … you’re very opinionated and very divisive,” Weir said. “You’re like Alan Jones — but left wing and less feminine. And like Alan Jones, you’re constantly getting in b*tch fights with people who are hotter and smarter than you.”

Weir then referred to Laurie’s recent online feud with fellow broadcaster Rusciano.

“If you climbed out of your own a**hole for even one second, you’d realise you have a lot in common with Ms Emelia Rusciano. Like … failed radio shows. And being single mums with mullets.”

“My radio career didn’t fail,” Laurie pointed out in a sly quip.

James Weir and Meshel Laurie on the Can We Be Real? podcast.

Weir added: “Getting dragged by Abbie Chatfield is the most you’ve moved all year.”

“Whenever I see video clips of you pop up on my Instagram feed, it takes me a good minute-and-a-half to realise it’s not just one of the upside-down talking chins from the World’s Greatest Shave commercials.”

Listen to the full roast on the latest episode of Can We Be Real?