This Just In: Roseanne Barr Is Crazy
ABC canceled its reboot of the hit sitcom “Roseanne” after Barr went on a Twitter rant.
Well that escalated quickly. ABC canceled its reboot of the hit sitcom “Roseanne” hours after its titular star, Roseanne Barr, went on a Twitter rant. National Review’s Mairead McArdle lays out the basics: “Actress and producer Barr made remarks Monday on Twitter comparing former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett [who is black] to a cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and ‘Planet of the Apes.’ ‘muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,’ Barr wrote in a thread where another user suggested Jarrett had helped the Obama administration conceal facts.”
Immediate calls for an apology — which Barr provided — were quickly superseded by demands that her show be canceled. ABC soon bowed to pressure. “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” said ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey in a statement later Tuesday.
“I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks,” Barr said. "I should have known better. Forgive me — my joke was in bad taste.“ She said she was leaving Twitter, only to come back later and blame the sleep medication Ambien.
But this is nothing new for Barr, and it’s been a long time since she "knew better.” As we noted two months ago when her show was relaunched, she’s subscribed to all sorts of conspiracy theories, from being a “9/11 truther” to believing that the Boston Marathon bombing was a “false flag.” She’s called Israel a “Nazi state” and then slammed Hillary Clinton for plotting Israel’s destruction. She insisted on reeducation camps or beheading for “guilty” Wall Street bankers in 2011. Barr is a socialist who ran for president in 2012, trying to get on the Green Party ticket but instead settling for that of the “Peace and Freedom Party.”
The most galling thing about it all is that ABC tried to market the new show by appealing to supporters of President Donald Trump — because Barr is herself an economic populist who is a fan of the president, albeit not for conservative reasons. Unfortunately, it’s all the better for the network to hang her around Republican necks only to brand her as a racist and then cast her out of polite society.
Keep in mind that ABC is the same network that employs serial misogynist Jimmy Kimmel and Joy Behar, who mocked Mike Pence’s (and all Christians’) faith on “The View.” ABC-owned ESPN employs Keith Olbermann, whose history of vulgar Twitter outbursts is legendary. And it’s the same network that canceled the show of conservative comedian Tim Allen simply because he’s conservative.
(Updated.)