OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Actress and comedian Roseanne Barr was fired from a reboot of her 1990s hit show “Roseanne” and the program was canceled in 2018 by ABC over a “racist” tweet involving former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, who is black.
Interestingly, however, Barr this week accused her old network of being racist after refusing to hire black writers and put a black character on her show.
Barr made her accusation during the opening night of Comedy Motherland, advertised as “Joe Rogan and Friends,” featuring comedy icons such as Barr, Ron White, Tim Dillon, and Tony Hinchcliffe, noted Slay News.
“I want to thank Joe for building this wonderful Mothership for comedians,” Barr said at one point during the evening. “It’s so great in the green room with everybody up there being drunk and smoking pot, just like at the Comedy Store when Mitzi Shore was still alive, and comedy was f**king king.
“After 30 years of fighting ABC to have black writers and black characters on my show and then having the same f**king libtards turn around and call me a racist, it really f**king pissed me off,” she added.
The reboot of “Roseanne” scored the highest ratings of a new TV series in years, but ABC dismissed her after she tweeted about Jarrett saying, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”
Later, Barr apologized: “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me — my joke was in bad taste.”
But she was fired nonetheless.
She has since starred in a Fox Nation stand-up comedy special — her first in 20 years — called “Roseanne Barr: Cancel This!” It features her characteristic no-holds-barred comedy, during which she declared, “My pronouns are, kiss my ass.”
Barr supported then-President Donald Trump and in 2019, after she was fired, she speculated that was a big reason why ABC let her go despite the success of the rebooted “Roseanne.”
“All of Hollywood, they just hate him and they hate those of us who like him. There is no way around it,” she said. “So, yeah, I think they took me off because I liked him, and I like him because I’m a Jew, and he likes Israel.”
She also discussed her firing this week with The Los Angeles Times.
“It was a witch-burning. And it was terrifying,” she recounted. “I would die many times. I guess you would call it the dark night of the soul. I felt like the devil himself was coming against me to try to tear me apart, to punish me for believing in God.”
“They didn’t do it to anyone else in Hollywood, although they always throw in Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K.,” she continued. “Well, Louis C.K. did lose everything, but he committed an actual [offense]. 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,” she continued.
Barr went on to say that she has forgiven everyone involved and that, ultimately, what happened was all part of God’s plan.
“I don’t think they’ll ever stop trying to come after me, particularly now that I am getting the last laugh on their a**. That’s why I’m coming back. I never would have that last laugh unless I’m strong enough to stand on two feet, and although I do have to wear adult diapers while doing it, I am not ever going to stop making fun of power and its arrogance, and I don’t give a f*** what color it is. I’ll be there. Make the most f***ing fun of it that I can before I croak,” she said.
Her special debuted on Fox Nation in mid-February and is currently available on the streaming network.
