THE CORE PRINCIPLE
Did the person choose it? Habits, job titles, lifestyle choices — chosen. Physical appearance, racial background, health — not chosen. The best roasters only ever target the first category.
BE SPECIFIC, NOT GENERIC
"You're lazy" has no edge. "You've been 'almost done' with the same project for four months" lands. Specificity is what makes roasts funny.
TARGET CHOICES, NOT IDENTITY
A roast targets what someone chose: hobbies, habits, lifestyle. It never targets what they didn't choose.
KNOW YOUR MATERIAL
The strongest roasts pick the thing the target thinks nobody noticed — the contradiction they've rationalized into a virtue.
USE THE RULE OF THREE
Comedy has a natural rhythm in threes: setup, build, punchline. The Daily AI Roaster delivers exactly 3 killer lines for this reason.
MAKE EVERY WORD COUNT
One perfect sentence beats three average paragraphs. Cut everything that isn't a punch.
NEVER GO BELOW THE LINE
Every roast has a line below which the joke stops being funny and starts causing genuine harm. Going harder doesn't make it funnier — going more precisely accurate does.
END ON THE PUNCHLINE
The most common beginner mistake: explaining the joke after delivery. Trust the joke. Say the thing, and stop.