Institute for Robert Downey Jr Studies > Research

Robert Downey Jr: Hasty Pudding Man of the Year, 2004

Hasty Pudding is a theater troupe at Harvard University that performs original comedy/musical shows. Each year, they select a Man and Woman “of the Year” — the Man of the Year is honored with a roast before the premiere of the troupe’s show. I was lucky enough to attend the roast of Robert Downey Jr and this is what I saw ...

The Report
Anyway, the weirdest thing about the roast was probably that a lot of the jokes seemed geared toward those who are in the know about Downey, and although the audience definitely welcomed and appreciated him, they weren’t really hardcore fans. Some of the jokes about his movies fell flat because, honestly, who has ever heard of Rented Lips or Danger Zone?

He came in through the back of the theater, and jokingly shielded himself from the press photographers, then took a seat. He was wearing a gray suit with a lighter gray cotton tee underneath. He looked nice, very cute.

The two hosts came out on stage. They went through his filmography and several of the jokes involved complimenting his abilities, and adding, “As he showed us in his role as Jerry in Hail Caesar ...”

Then they invited him up on stage. They said that he’s been in “over fifty movies and all but seven of them were good.”

Someone in the audience yelled out, “No, eight!”

And they added, “Oh yeah, how could we forget Danger Zone?” They also cited his role as Wolf Dangler in Rented Lips, the puppy in Pound, and made a crack about how much he was paid to do Back to School.

The two hosts argued over what it was that makes him brilliant — his ability to “talk the talk” or to “walk the walk.” To settle their argument, they asked him to do a couple of things. First, he had to draw from his experience as a psychiatrist in Gothika to help explain to a big fuzzy bulldog that he’d had an operation which he couldn’t remember. On the dog suit, they sewed on a large bandage in the crotch area, and Downey approached the dog, saying, “Listen you nutless wonder...” and he cracked a bunch of jokes at the dog’s expense (the only other thing I remember about this was that Downey stated that he is well-endowed).

Then, the male host talked about Downey’s role in Two Girls and a Guy, and asked if he could convince two women that he loves them without saying a word (as the Tramp). He said the girls (in the movie) were very pretty, but that in Wonder Boys Downey’s character was more into tranvestites and college boys, which they knew more about (Hasty Pudding is an all-male troupe and their shows always involve cross-dressing). Two guys from the troupe came out in drag, and the hosts gave Downey a Chaplin hat, cane, and moustache. He did the little Chaplin move, and went back and forth between the “girls” until he finally poked one in the butt with his cane, and gave the other one of those deep, sweep-you-off-your-feet kisses.

The hosts also mentioned his singing voice and role in The Singing Detective, and asked if he would sing for the crowd. They had the audience sing a round of “Where Has My Little Dog Gone” to get the tune, then gave him a piece of paper with a new, rewritten version for him to sing. It went, “Where oh where will my next film hit be ... will it be Bowfinger 2, Two Girls and Horse, or Less Than Zero 3?”

They told him that they’d lost the pudding pot (the award) and that he needed to use his detective skills from The Singing Detective to find it. The two drag queens returned to the stage, each holding a box. They told him to figure out which one had the pudding pot, so he made his choice, and opened the box, to reveal a big red fuzzy bra. He put on the bra, and they told him to check the other box. He said, “I don’t think it’s in there, either.”

The host replied, “You’re probably not wrong, but you should check anyway.”

Downey turned to him and said, “Hey, you ad-libbed that, huh?” and he tapped the guy on the arm. Then he opened up the other box, and said, “Oh God!” before revealing a blue Wonder Woman wig. (The wig was, I believe, a reference to a somewhat embarassing and lesser-known detail of Downey’s checkered past — judging by his reaction when he saw the wig, I think he knew it; that being said, the roast focused on his career, with no blatant or obvious references to his extra-curriculars). After he put on the wig, they presented him with the award.

He posed for the press, then gave a little acceptance speech, in which he said, “This is the first time a convicted felon has received this award. If there’s anything I could teach, I could easily fashion a shiv out of a can of tuna fish.” He also said it was the most exciting thing to happen to him since he played pocket pool and watched Animal Planet earlier in the day.