Roseanne Barr knocks ABC in return to comedy stage: ‘I ain’t dead’
Roseanne Barr ripped her former television network ABC in her return to stand-up comedy this week after being fired from the network over a racist tweet, saying she “ain’t dead.”
“Dear ABC, when you asked me back to once again bail out your shit f—ing low-rated network, I did so with the same vigor I always rocked,” the actress and comedian told a crowd for a comedy set in Las Vegas while reading from a sheet of paper.
“And I delivered you the highest ratings you’ve had in 10 f—ing years.”{mosads}
Barr’s top-rated sitcom, “Roseanne,” was quickly canceled by ABC last year after its 66-year-old star targeted former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett in a tweet.
“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr wrote at the time, referring to the Islamist group. Barr apologized and deleted the remark, but later said in a YouTube video, “I thought the bitch was white!”
Channing Dungey, then-ABC Entertainment president, called Barr’s Twitter post “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
In video of her comedy stand-up posted online, Barr, a staunch supporter of President Trump, also shares how her show’s cancellation impacted her personally.
She told the crowd that after being fired “you get real suicidal,” adding she would never take her own life because “that would make too many f—ing people happy.”
“I’m not about making people happy,” she said.
After cutting ties with Barr, the protagonist in “Roseanne” was killed off with a plot involving an opioid overdose. The politically charged reboot of the 90s comedy series returned to ABC as a Barr-less spin-off last fall, with a new title: “The Conners.”
“At the first sign of controversy, you killed me off with a drug overdose,” Barr said in video clips from her stand-up routine. “But you know what? I ain’t dead, bitches.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
