Brush up on your zingers.
HBO is inviting fans of “Game of Thrones” to lampoon King Joffrey Baratheon in an internet roast. The tyrant is certainly a ripe target — he’s sadistic, cowardly, conniving and has been responsible for a particularly shocking death that came at the end of Season One. Oh, and he plays really creepy games with prostitutes.
Even Jack Gleeson, the actor who plays him on the show, had a tough time sticking up for the teenage despot.
Also read: Joffrey on ‘Game of Thrones’ to Quit Acting, Be a Humanitarian
“I would like to try and defend him, but I would have a pretty hard job doing it,” Gleeson said last month on “The Saturday Night Show.” ” I suppose he’s the product of his context and his family. In terms of redeemable qualities, there wouldn’t be many.”
The campaign kicked off Thursday at 8 a.m. on Twitter, Vine, Instagram and Facebook and will feature celebrity roasters such as “Hostel” director Eli Roth, comedian Steve Harvey, and “Glee” star Kevin McHale. HBO will moderate the barbs and feature the best Tweets on RoastJoffrey.com
“Lend us your tongues, taunts and tweets for the first social media roast of the ‘beloved” King Joffrey,’” HBO said. It’s asking users to use the hashtags #RoastJoffrey. The campaign is a collaboration between the cable channel and ad agency 360i, after the ad agency discovered that Joffrey is the most hated villain on social media, according to a report on Ad Age.
As of this posting, the event had attracted over 6,000 roasts.
“Game of Thrones” returns for a fourth season in Spring, 2014.
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