Roseanne didn't quit Twitter for long: She's back, blaming (and unblaming) Ambien and bickering with co-stars

Suzy Byrne
·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment
0

So much for quitting Twitter. Roseanne Barr has continued to post — and offend — after a racist tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett led to ABC canceling her show, as well as old episodes of the series being pulled from Hulu and Viacom cable channels.

The controversial comedian has been busy in her less than 24 hours of unemployment. She apologized for saying that Jarrett was like “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby,” blamed Ambien for her racist post, backpedaled on the Ambien excuse, claimed she didn’t know that Jarrett was black, retweeted a new attack on Jarrett, and took on co-stars who spoke out against her. Whew!

The apology

Roseanne Barr at the <i>Roseanne</i> press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on March 23, 2018. (Photo: Vera Anderson/WireImage)
Roseanne Barr at the Roseanne press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on March 23, 2018. (Photo: Vera Anderson/WireImage)

After announcing she was “leaving” Twitter and initially apologizing to “Valerie Jarrett and all Americans” on Tuesday after ABC gave her the boot, Barr returned about 12 hours later to say sorry again.

She then reshared a non-Twitter apology.

And then apologized to Jarrett, who has called this whole thing a “teaching moment,” again.

The excuses

Instead of just leaving it there and, ya know, taking some time away from social media to tend to her macadamia nuts, Barr then offered up a series of excuses. In a now-deleted tweet, she wrote, “guys I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me. It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting-it was memorial day too-i went 2 far & do not want it defended-it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but…don’t defend it please. Ty.”

But then she claimed she didn’t realize that Jarrett was black.

She wrote that she “mistakenly thought” Jarrett was “white.”

And “Jewish and Persian”…

And “Saudi.”

She also backpedaled from the sleeping pill comment, saying she had never blamed Ambien for the offensive tweet.

The Ambien mention led the manufacturer to weigh in, saying in part, “Racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”


And while Barr asked fans not to defend her mistake, she retweeted tons of people who did.

Barr’s new attacks

Among Barr’s retweets were attacks on TV personalities Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, and Trevor Noah, as well as an incorrect meme about Jarrett. She later deleted that retweet and acknowledged it as fake.

Drama with her Roseanne co-stars

Barr’s TV son Michael Fishman shared a long post about how he was “devastated” by her comments. She shot back a harsh reply.

He replied — and so did she.

Roseanne went slightly easier on Sara Gilbert, saying that she was “shocked” by Gilbert’s tweet against her but forgives her.

And she blamed Wanda Sykes, who was first to quit the show after Barr’s tweet, for being the one who got her axed.

She also retweeted a “racist” joke Sykes made in 2017 that “White people don’t steal wallets. They steal countries.”

Emma Kenney, a new cast member on the reboot, also spoke out against Barr.

Drama with ABC

Barr retweeted a post saying that ABC Entertainment head Channing Dungey, who pulled the plug on Roseanne, “tolerates misbehavior, vulgarity, profanity, threats of murder to our POTUS, and Weinstein behavior, amongst her employees, but if you are a conservative and misbehave, well dammit you’re fired!”

When someone questioned her about it, she wrote that she has “been punished enough and have my own story to tell.”

She inquired whether fake news going around — that Dungey called Michelle Obama to discuss Barr’s Jarrett comment — was true.

Future of Roseanne

Barr also hinted about the future of her show. There has been a lot of talk of the show moving to another network — maybe Fox — and she shut that down.

She said that she probably would have quit Roseanne anyway if ABC had tried to censor her scripts.

Tweeting the prez

President Trump is a fan of Barr’s show, congratulating her when her early ratings were a hit. She pulled him into the drama by @ messaging him, saying that she could relate to him because what she has gone through in the last 24 hours, he goes through each day.

Her tweet got him going. Soon after, Trump tweeted about Bob Iger, the head of ABC’s parent company, Walt Disney Company.

So what’s next for Barr? Well, in addition to more tweeting, we assume, she also wrote that she will be a guest Friday on comedian Joe Rogan’s The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. And she’s apparently ready to fight. Roseanne said on Wednesday afternoon that she’s exploring her options — presumably legal ones.


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