As he told the perplexed crowd, Tom Arnold hasn’t been in the same room as his ex-wife Roseanne Barr for 17 years so when he showed up her Comedy Central roast… even she was lost for words. The sharp-tongued comic appeared genuinely surprised when Arnold took the stage near the end of her taping.

‘We have not been in the same room for over 17 years,’ 53-year-old Arnold told the audience after taking to the stage.

His roast went against the grain, and the comedian, whose marriage to Barr collapsed in the most acrimonious way possible, waxed lyrical about the star, 59.

After receiving a standing ovation, Arnold wondered out loud: ‘Is this really the best format to do this? Getting together with your ex at a roast.’

But Roseanne was clearly touched by his appearance.

‘I’d really like to thank Tom for showing up. It was very brave and he was very funny,’ Roseanne said when she took the stage to sup up the roast.

However, her acerbic touch had returned and she said of the man she hired to work in a plum role on her eponymous hit show: ‘But Jesus Christ how many jobs do I have to get that guy?’

Arnold did offer a recap of their ‘white-trash Camelot’ life together before tackling their sex life and gently poking fun at his former wife’s notorious temper. Tom had previously ruled himself out of an appearance at the roast, which made it all the more surprising.  And after the couple’s acrimonious split, nobody was much surprised.

Tom ended his surprise appearance with complimentary comments about Roseanne’s rise to fame after appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, declaring, ‘Roseanne, you were my Johnny Carson,’ and then thanking her ‘from the bottom of my heart’ for launching his career.

Elite.