Comedian Clarifies Blake Lively Joke, Makes Statement of Support

Former Summer House star turned comedian Hannah Berner is clarifying the timeline on her Blake Lively joke that appeared in Netflix's Torching 2024: A Roast of the Year.

In the comedy special that filmed earlier this year, Berner made a joke about how "the word 'c--t' was trending this year," she said, before quickly getting to the punchline: "I don't think Blake Lively was that bad."

The timing of the joke is more what's coming under fire, given that the special—which started streaming on Friday—is coming out in the days since Lively filed a lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni.

In a post to her Instagram Stories later Friday evening, Berner posted an image of herself from the special and a caveat, "My joke in the Netflix roast was filmed before news of the [complaint]. To be 100 percent clear, I support Blake xoxo," she wrote.

Hannah Berner Instagram Story Blake Lively Response — Berner's Instagram Story reads: "My joke in the Netflix roast was filmed before news of the lawsuit. To be 100 percent clear, I support Blake xoxo"

The statement comes in the wake of a wave of support from Lively's friends, family, and collaborators—including her sister Robyn Lively, her A Simple Favor director Paul Feig and her sequel co-star Michele Morrone, Jenny Slate, Colleen Hoover, Amber Heard (whose ex-husband Johnny Depp used the same crisis management PR agency as Baldoni during their much-publicized trial), and her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-stars America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, and Amber Tamblyn.

In the wake of the complaint, Baldoni has been dropped from his representatives at WME, sued by his former publicist, and had an award he won earlier this year for being an ally to women rescinded. His Man Enough podcast co-host Liz Plank also walked away from the show. A new report from Deadline claims that Baldoni is planning a counter-suit against Lively once the new year begins.

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Alicia Lutes is a freelance writer, essayist, journalist, humorist, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. She has written extensively on culture, entertainment, the craft of comedy, and mental health. Her work has been featured in places such as Vulture, Playboy, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, MTV, Cosmopolitan, Rotten Tomatoes, Bustle, Longreads, and more. She was also the creator/former host of the web series Fangirling, and currently fosters every single dog she can.