Watch James Corden Call Riz Ahmed ‘World’s Worst Version of Will Smith’
The insults ran deep – and cheap – on Monday night’s rap battle between Girls and Star Wars actor Riz Ahmed and Late Late Show host James Corden.
The crowd deemed Ahmed the freestyle winner. Though for someone who also raps in real life, the Rogue One actor’s jabs at Corden were mostly predictable fat jokes: “You look like Matt Damon if he only ate butter” to “I saw you at Coachella – you were the big white tent.” After Corden made a dig at Ahmed’s Rogue One performance (making him “miss the days of Jar Jar Binx”), Ahmed retorted, “too bad they weren’t casting Jabba the Hutt’s dad.”
Corden compensated for his lack of flow with more nuanced attacks, both funny and biting. He began his freestyle announcing Ahmed’s “lyrics lack depth just like when he acts.” Ahmed took a few swings at Corden’s show, calling him an Ellen hack and a “singing Uber driver.” But when Corden called Ahmed “the world’s worst version of Will Smith,” the crowd actually went silent.