Roseanne Barr unloaded on James Gunn's firing, her own angry video and how she "knew" her show would get cancelled in her latest appearance on Rabbi Shmuley's podcast Monday night.
The beleaguered sitcom star also promised that she would be appearing in at least one television interview very soon, though she declined to say exactly when and where. "I'm not going to announce it just because I don't want people showing up," she said. "I don't want a crowd. I don't want that. They'll see it on TV soon; this week." This suggests either the interview will happen live, or will be taped soon for broadcast later this week.
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View StoryWith a friendship dating back decades, Shmuley's podcast is a safe space and a friendly environment for the beleaguered former sitcom star to try and get her message out more eloquently than she has ever been able to manage within the confines of her Twitter feed. There, she is often seen as an unhinged lunatic, espousing conspiracy theories and angry hate speech.
While many might argue that she's doing the same thing on Shmuley's show, at least she's doing so with context and complete thoughts. But she's also not being challenged at all in her beliefs or explanations since Shmuley is a long-time friend and supporter. This is why many people have been looking forward to an on-camera interview.
At the same time, a television interview would inevitably be limited by the time constraints of the format, whereas Shmuley generally chats openly with Barr for a solid hour, as he did again in this latest episode. Their conversation touched on a wide array of topics, from theology to politics to Barr's ongoing battle over the controversial tweet that cost her television's top-rated show.
Check out the highlights below:
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View StoryJames Gunn Firing
While talking about how she got fired over a misconstrued tweet -- Barr has insisted multiple times she had no idea that Valerie Jarrett was African-American when she tweeted a comparison between her and "Planet of the Apes" -- Roseanne Barr did take a moment to comment briefly on the recent firing of James Gunn by Disney, ABC's parent company.
"The one guy that Disney just fired the other day for writing all that disgusting stuff about raping children for years, he was one of the people who said ABC was right to fire me over my racist tweet," she said. "He was one of them. But then it came back around, because, you know, what goes around comes around"
I'm disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn's pedophile jokes-as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn't even understand.
@therealroseanne
The comedian followed up those comments with a tweet last night expressing her "disgust" at the support Gunn has received in the wake of his firing, with many from within Hollywood calling for his reinstatement as director of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise, though he'd not officially signed on for the third installment. These are the same people, according to Barr, who encouraged her blacklisting.
Unforgiven
Gunn's fan loyalty led to a larger discussion about a possible politically-motivated Hollywood double standard.
Roseanne Barr certainly thinks the openly liberal political bias in Hollywood is a big part of the reason her apology and explanation for the Jarrett tweet seem to have fallen on deaf ears in the media and the entertainment industry, suggesting a coordinated effort by Democratic leaders like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
"I think it's because Obama, one of the things he did, and Hillary, too, they got all the emails for all the Democrats and they're able to organize and put boots on the ground and get people that will send the emails and make the phone calls," she said. "They can put boots on the ground and the right doesn't have those emails and they're very kind of weak in organization."
But she says that bias extends beyond Hollywood and into the media. Barr says she was called by various media outlets for comment, but they weren't interested in her caveat to speaking with them. "I said, as soon as you report on what's happening in Iran I'll come on there," Barr explained. "But they said, 'Oh, the American people aren't interested in hearing about Iran.' That's what they said. All of them ... They just wanted to stick to the leftist narrative that it was a racial and not a political tweet. It's about Iran, as I told you from the beginning."
Barr spent much of the podcast railing against the Obama-era Iran deal that Valerie Jarrett penned, saying it was bad for America and suggesting that members of both political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, profited off of the deal, while Iran got billions of dollars in untraceable cash while continuing their "death to America" and "death to Jews" narratives.
Fans Rally Behind Roseanne After She Posts Rage-Filled Video About Racist Tweet: 'I Thought The Bitch Was White'
View StoryAngry Rant
All of this frustration culminated in her epic YouTube tirade where she screamed, "I thought the bitch was white!"
Asked about her anger in that moment, Barr admitted she's still angry. "I'm angry that they keep writing 'Roseanne's racist tweet' after two months of me explaining. I'm quite angry," she said. "So I decided I was going to scream just to try to get through the haze of it ... I mean, they drove me out of my mind."
She said the worldwide media seems determined to ignore or refuse to accept either her apology or her explanation for the tweet, suggesting it's part of some media agenda. "It makes me very angry about racism itself because what are you really saying underneath all that, where you refuse to accept my explanation?" she asked rhetorically. "They need to call it racist instead of political. That's what they need to do and they're doing it, because that justifies getting rid of me."
"Roseanne" Cancellation Conspiracy
Barr went so far as to suggest that her firing was the inevitable outcome of a long conspiracy to shut down the revived "Roseanne." According to the comedian, the problem for the media and those in power is that her show spotlighted unity over division, both politically and racially.
"I predicted the outcome that they would take down the only show on television that showed a Trump hater and a Hillary hater making peace and getting on with their lives," she said. "I predicted that from the beginning that they would take that down. And they would take it down also because the issue of race was involved and it was race within a family, a mixed family, and they didn't like that, either. I know what I fought and it became too much for me. It pushed me to utter distraction to do it."
She argued that Holllywood wants to politicize everything, and "Roseanne" Was trying something different: "Diverse people and diverse opinions and that's not a safe thing to do in this day and age. But I did it and I won," she said. "I went out number one and they can't take it away from me. And I know I gave the American people what they wanted. They want peace in the home."
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View StorySupporting Trump
Donald Trump's recent Iran tweet inevitably came up as he was referring to the same deal with Iran that Barr claims her tweet was about. "I was just floored that he has the guts to say it," Barr said of his tweet.
"That was the subject of my misunderstood tweet, the overlords of Iran and what they've also done in the United States. It's not just in the Middle East, but what they've sown in the United States as well under the Obama State Department."
To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
@realDonaldTrump
Barr's since-deleted tweet was in response to someone tweeting to her that Valerie Jarrett helped cover up allegedly questionable Obama administration actions. In response, Barr tweeted, "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." Jarrett was a former aide to Obama during his administration and helped facilitate the controversial Iran deal. She has since claimed she did not know Jarrett is black and therefore her "Planet of the Apes" reference was not racially motivated. However, before declaring ignorance over Jarrett's race, Barr claimed the tweet was the byproduct of drinking and taking Ambien. Her inconsistency on explaining the tweet has led many to question the veracity of her multiple accounts.
Advice for Trump
While she is publicly supportive of Donald Trump, Barr did offer some advice to the Commander in Chief. "You can't just go and bomb the people anymore. This is a new time now," she said. "You can't just bomb the people like Obama did to eight countries. You can't just bomb them into agreeing with you and installing a puppet government for them. The people have to do it themselves."
And Barr says that's exactly what's happening, so the time to respond is now, just not with bombs. "They're growing into a democratic state, I hope, they're demanding accountability from their leaders, too, like we should here," she said. "That doesn't need bombs. That just needs support for the people."
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View StoryAdvice for Americans
The comic also offered some advice to the American people. In this time of "fake news," and political and media bias, it's more important than ever that Americans "think clearly for themselves using facts and information from a variety of sources."
"I get very frustrated when people are under mind control because that's how the Nazis won," Barr said. "They used mind control on the masses and when I see any evidence of that in America, I go berserk. We can't let that happen!"
Barr explained that she considers herself an Independent politically, "because I think, I don't parrot party lines." She called for Americans to wake up and get involved in the political process.
"They're going to have to wake up and start putting action into getting the government that they want instead of the government that somebody thinks they deserve," she said. "I hope it's a great wake up call to anybody who liked my show. My show was always about diversity and acceptance and family love.
"People liked it because it's just ordinary middle of the road people, and that is who makes up our country. And for those ordinary middle of the road people who think maybe some things on the left are smart and maybe some things on the right are smart, something else in the middle has to happen because we don't want to empower extremists, whether they're in Iran or our own country. We don't want extremists from either wing. We want the voice of the people."
New Career Opportunity?
As for what comes next for her career in entertainment, Barr has a plan there, as well. "I'm gonna start starring in porn," she joked. "Geriatric porn."
After Barr gave up all rights to her eponymous sitcom, ABC picked up a spinoff without her called "The Conners," set for a 10-episode run starting in the fall.