Roseanne Barr on being cancelled for 'racism' and 'anti-Semitism': I'm a targeted individual
Comedian Roseanne Barr says the world cannot "handle satire" after she was cancelled for racist remarks and labelled a Holocaust denier.
Roseanne Barr says she is a "targeted individual" following her controversial Holocaust comments.
The 70-year-old Jewish comedian was cancelled again after she made what she calls a "sarcastic, ironic" remark that "nobody died in the Holocaust either," while discussing the 2020 US presidential election - which see President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump - and the "truth" about America recently.
The Trump supporter had said on Theo Von's podcast 'This Past Weekend': "Nobody died in the Holocaust either. That's the truth. It should happen.
Six million Jews should die right now cause they cause all the problems in the world. But it never happened. But it never happened - mandated."
The clip went viral and Barr was labelled anti-Semitic and a Holocaust denier, but she is adamant to this day that her words were taken out of context and that she was being ironic.
The holocaust comment came after the stand-up had previously been cancelled and dropped from 'Roseanne', which was subsequently rebooted as 'The Conners' in 2018, after comparing White House advisor Valerie Jarrett to an "ape" in a late-night Twitter post she later claimed was written when she was on the sleeping pill Ambien.
And in an interview on 'Piers Morgan Uncensored' in New York this week, Barr agreed with the host that the world has "gone mad" and that no one can "handle satire" anymore.
Piers asked: “Have we gone mad, Roseanne, in our world? When I look at all the fallout to the things you say or do, I look at the apoplexy that people bring to jokes, to humour, to sarcasm, to irony, all these things, and I really despair that the very essence of comedy, for example, is being expunged from human life.”
She responded: “Yes it is. You should despair, Piers, and so should anybody who has a brain or any humanity whatsoever, or any connection to any other human beings on earth, they should despair too. I say that they are weaponising stupidity and people have sunk to such a level that they can’t handle satire because satire is when you take two disparate subjects and bring them together to defamiliarise reality such as a poet does with words. Defamiliarise reality and they cannot hold two disparate ideas in their head at the same time because they are fed b*****t 24/7 over the media.”
Speaking of the comments she made about the Holocaust, she insisted: “I meant the opposite … and the fact that it went over everybody’s head isn’t my fault.”
After replaying what she had said, Piers asked: “Why do these things happen?"
Barr explained: “Because I’m a targeted individual. For 6,000 years there has been a Jewish civil war and nobody knows about it, I speak about it a lot. It’s at its climax right now and I have been targeted by largely Jewish people on the other side of the political spectrum.”
Podcast host Theo quickly defended Barr's comments on the episode.
He wrote at the time: "This Roseanne Barr clip was sarcasm folks. A clip taken out of a long sarcastic rant she had during our chat. Can we not recognize sarcasm anymore? (sic)"
However, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said the comments were "irresponsible", regardless of the sarcastic tone.
He said: "Sarcasm or not, Roseanne Barr's comments about Jews and the Holocaust are reprehensible and irresponsible. This isn't funny. And shame on Theo Von for letting it go unchallenged and instead diving into conspiracy theories about Jews and Hollywood."
Watch 'Piers Morgan Uncensored', Monday to Thursday on TalkTV at 8pm. Available on Sky 522, Sky Glass 508, Virgin Media 606, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217 as well as on DAB, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung TV Plus, YouTube, the Talk.TV website and TalkTV iOS and Android apps.
