Roseanne Barr has recently lashed out at Hollywood in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times stating that she was a victim of the industry’s double standard. The comedian slammed ABC for firing her in 2018 from her top-rated sitcom Roseanne which was subsequently renamed The Conners. She further made a comparison of her treatment to that of two other popular transgressive comics, Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K.
“I’m the only person who’s lost everything. Has anyone else here been fired recently? They didn’t do it to anyone else in Hollywood, although they always [mention] Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. Well, Louis C.K. did lose everything, but he committed an actual [offense],” Barr told the outlet. “And Dave Chappelle was protected by Netflix. I’m the only person who’s lost everything, whose life’s work was stolen, stolen by people who I thought loved me. And there was silence. There was no one in Hollywood really defending me publicly, except for Mo’nique, who is a brave, close, dear friend.”
Why was Roseanne Barr fired from her show?
In May 2018, Barr took to Twitter to post a seemingly racist tweet that read, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = VJ” referring to Valerie Jarrett, a black person and a senior advisor to Barack Obama. ABC Entertainment, the broadcast network did not waste time in canceling Roseanne, a show which premiered just two months earlier.
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Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment at the time in a statement to People condemned Barr’s tweet. “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” However, the show continued as The Conners.
The actress claimed her tweet was a mistake
The 70-year-old was quick to retrace her steps stating that her tweet was “unforgivable,” and that she was on Ambien which made her not know that Jarret was black. “I thought she was Saudi,” she wrote in one tweet. “I honestly thought she was Jewish and Persian-ignorant of me for sure, but…I did,” read another while a third tweet said, “Yes, I mistakenly thought she was white.”
However, she also tweeted an apology to Jarret and the American public as a whole. “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks,” Bar wrote via Twitter. “I should have known better. Forgive me—my joke was in bad taste.”
She believes that she was unjustly punished
Barr explained to the Los Angeles Times that her punishment was totally unwarranted and referred to it as “witch burning.” She told the news outlet, “I felt like the Devil himself was coming against me to try to tear me apart, to punish me for believing in God.”
The 70-year-old also claimed that the Producers of The Connors were pushing for her to kill herself. “When they killed my character off, that was a message to me, knowing that I’m mentally ill or have mental health issues, that they did want me to commit suicide,” Barr said. “They killed my character, and my character. And all of that was to say thank you for bringing 28 million viewers, which they never had before and will never see again. Because they can kiss my ass.”
Roseanne Barr has continued her work as a comedian
Barr has not been laying around since her cancellation, she has been performing standup in several comedy clubs. The 70-year-old revealed to the Los Angeles Times that she feels so good about her act. “I’m so happy that this is the most offensive in my stand-up that I’ve ever had the balls to be.” Barr still remains highly controversial as she had been called out for offensive jokes about transgenders.
Recently, she hosted a new standup comedy special, Roseanne Barr: Cancel This!, which premiered on Fox Nation on Feb. 13, and also released a documentary about her career, Who Is Roseanne Barr?, which also debuted on the same streaming service that same day.
The 70-year-old told the L.A. Times that work is in progress for another comedy special. “I already want to do another special,” Barr explained to the outlet. “I want to go further in-depth than the first one. Once I started back writing comedy, I couldn’t stop it. I wrote about four hours of material. Now I’ve got so much material it’s hard to carve down. I want to talk about what it’s like to work in the creative arts in Hollywood, how crazy it is.”