Roseanne Barr, who allegedly is a comedian of some sort, had her eponymous TV show canceled by ABC last week despite success in the ratings. You might have heard about this; it was in all the papers.
The cancellation occurred after Roseanne tweeted an offensive comment about a former Barack Obama adviser. Why she was attacking this particular Obama confidant is unclear; well, somebody probably explains it amid the thousands of stories that have been written, but I’m really not that curious.
I did read enough, however, to know that the comment was indefensible and was awash in racism. It was so indefensible that Roseanne skipped over the typical “my account was hacked” excuse and went right to The Ambien Defense, claiming she was in a sleeping-pill-induced stupor when she wrote the tweet.
Some historians believe Vlad the Impaler first used The Ambien Defense to explain his torturous ways during the 15th century; others note that this is unlikely because Ambien was not marketed until 1988. Either way, the makers of Ambien responded to Roseanne’s claim by saying, “racism is not a known side effect.” Seriously, they did that, proving that drug manufacturers are funnier than Roseanne Barr.
All of this has given the 37 percent of the American population that makes its living as political commentators plenty to talk about. Roseanne’s show, a reboot of her earlier hit sitcom, depicted a working-class family and was sympathetic to President Trump, and some Trump supporters believe ABC was simply looking for an excuse to cancel the show.
It seems odd to defend a racist tweet by claiming that racists are being persecuted, but that is the country we live in. And at least she didn’t kneel.
Anyway, such an outcome was inevitable. Roseanne has spent the past several years repeating cockamamie conspiracy theories and conflating “edgy” with “funny.” For a photo shoot in 2009, she dressed as Adolf Hitler and pulled burnt cookies in the shape of people from an oven. Ah, nothing says comedy like the Holocaust, does it? See, we told you drug companies are funnier.
Last year, she claimed Trump had broken up trafficking rings, tweeting, “President Trump has freed so many children held in bondage to pimps all over this world,” an assertion with no foundation in reality. She claimed that Democratic benefactor George Soros was a Nazi who turned in fellow Jews to be murdered. She claimed that a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting gave a Nazi salute. She tweeted that an Obama administration official, an African-American woman, was “a man with big swinging ape balls.”
And along the way, she reinforced the very worst stereotypes of Trump supporters. But at least she didn’t kneel.
Time for soul-searching
Which really is the point of this column. Because in 1990, Roseanne “sang” the national anthem before a San Diego Padres baseball game. She shrieked her way through the song, then spat on the ground and grabbed her crotch. Then-President George H.W. Bush called the event “disgraceful”; many Americans agreed.
That performance is relevant these days, with questions about how we respond to the anthem being part of the national discussion. You see, when African-American football players kneel during the anthem to protest the treatment of blacks in this country, they are vilified by conservatives and the president. When a white woman butchers the anthem in front of 27,285 fans, she is allowed to write it off as an attempt to “bring humor to the song.”
All of which calls for some soul-searching on the part of those offended by kneeling during the national anthem. Are they truly offended by what they see as disrespect for the flag, or are they offended by who is doing the kneeling?
Roseanne Barr has spent a generation publicly reflecting the very worst in Americans, and it made her famous. Well, at least she didn’t kneel.