Justin Bieber didn’t deserve his roast — and neither did the comedians attending.

What we learned from the star’s primetime roast

There was something deeply uncomfortable about Justin Bieber’s remarks last Monday night at the end of the singer’s self-commissioned Comedy Central roast.

After flying through a rapid-fire succession of oneliners that he did not write but which he nonetheless delivered expertly, Bieber switched gears and made an impassioned plea for forgiveness. He’s made mistakes, he said. He wants another chance. He’ ll prove himself. Thank you, God.

The roast was meant to be the grand finale for Bieber’s apology tour, which has so far comprised appearing on Ellen about a dozen times in a month and not releasing any new material for almost three years. The Canadian singer apparently asked Comedy Central to be roasted, as though being publicly eviscerated by a mixed bag of rappers, former pro basketball players, legitimate comedians and Martha Stewart would be some sort of bar mitzvah at 21, transitioning the singer from smirking child pop star into respected adult artist.

But having the ability to request a public dressing-down, to air for 90 minutes on Comedy Central and be attended by a whole bunch of very rich and famous people and presenting it as penance — and then following a bunch of tight comedy routines with a contrived plea for forgiveness — is ridiculously egotistical, even for Bieber, who has nothing to apologize for but plenty to be embarrassed about. When most kids Bieber’s age screw up, they get grounded. This guy gets to wear a suit and hang out with Snoop.

The roast’s participants spent much more time prodding one another than Bieber himself — and when they did make fun of Bieber, they were distressingly nice about it. The roasters — including host Kevin Hart, Ludacris, Jeff Ross, Hannibal Buress, Snoop Dogg and Shaq — started slow and their jokes were variations on themes: Hart is short, Shaq is tall. Will Ferrell made a ninthinning appearance as Ron Burgundy. “There isn’t a person in this room who hasn’t done that!” Ferrell-as-Burgundy joked of an incident that saw Bieber caught on film defacing a photo of Bill Clinton, after listing off a number of Bieber’s other public stunts and punctuating them with exaggerated mock exclamations of shock, as if to say: Come on, kid. You think you’re worth this?

He does, though. If Bieber wants to turn over a new leaf and start acting like an adult, good on him, but who cares? After Monday, the only thing likely to have changed in the court of public opinion is that Bieber now deserves to be thanked for any part he played in orchestrating a roast that allowed Burress to look Bieber square in the eye and say: “I don’t like your music. I think it’s bad, man. I don’t like it. I hate your music, man. I hate your music more than Bill Cosby hates my comedy.”