OK, it's confession time. I want to get it out of the way before I go on about the latest brouhaha concerning Roseanne Barr.
I saw what she tweeted about former White house advisor Valerie Jarrett, and I thought it was funny in a twisted, insulting way. And I still do. It's awful and insulting and in bad taste, but it is morbidly funny.
In fact, in the regularly insulting material that passes as "comedy" today from the lips of both men and women who claim to be "comics," Barr's words were/are par for the course. Some of it is funny.
Except of course, when it isn't – and this wasn't. In an instant, the "you know what" hit the fan.
I found the extreme reaction to Barr's words more astonishing than what she said. Democrats were furious. Blacks were furious. Muslims were furious. Commentators were furious. Hollywood was furious. Sponsors were furious. The media blew up with fury.
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Barr's network was furious, so much so that with barely a moment to breathe, they cancelled her new revival hit series, despite that it topped the ratings and it's estimated the loss will cost ABC more than a billion dollars.
The instantaneous negative reaction of all the critics was that Roseanne Barr went off the deep end with her tweet directed against Jarrett, who is black and who was born in Iran.
In case you haven't seen "it," she tweeted about Jarrett: "Muslim Brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby = vj."
The whole thing should have disappeared from that moment, but the exaggerated reaction has given it a long and awful life, affecting far more than Roseanne Barr. She was hit with accusations of "over-the-top racism," of using "racially-charged tweets."
Almost instantly, ABC rose to the occasion and announced it will cancel her series scheduled to air in the fall. The network statement from ABC's Entertainment President Channing Dungey read: "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values and we have decided to cancel her show."
Some might wonder whether the reaction had anything to do with the fact that Dungey is the first black entertainment chief of a major broadcast network. That wouldn't be a politically correct question to ask – but it is out there.
Not only was the series cancelled and Roseanne out of job, but also everyone connected to it was suddenly out of a job. Cast members reacted with appropriate horror and stated that Roseanne's opinion did not reflect the views of the others in the series – which is probably true.
The damage spread as ICM Partners, Barr's talent agency, dropped her as a client because she violated their "core values."
Who knew they had them, or what they were?
It's also been reported that all episodes of the original "Roseanne" will be pulled from circulation, as well as anything else connected with the show. In other words, the goal is to "disappear" Roseanne Barr.
Isn't that a tactic used by subversive, Communist regimes?
The tweet about Jarrett wasn't the only word from Barr – she also tweeted falsehoods about Chelsea Clinton and George Soros. As the damage spread, Barr apologized for her words, and in fact blamed it on her taking Ambien, a prescription sleeping aid.
That got a heated reaction from Sanofi-Aventis, the manufacturer of Ambien, which acknowledged some side effects from the drug, but not "racism."
Ha-ha.
Given the acknowledged side effects of Ambien, it is entirely possible that Roseanne Barr could have done those tweets while under the influence of the drug and not have any recollection of it.
I speak from experience to that. I was prescribed Ambien, several years ago, but with no warning about the side effects. I took the pill once, as prescribed, and went to bed. When I got up the next morning, I realized things were strange. Chores l had left undone the night before – were done! What I realized was that I had been up and did those chores but had no memory of it at all.
Nice that the work was done, but it was frightening that I had no memory of it. I found out such memory losses are common with Ambien, along with a long list of other effects. I never took another Ambien again and never will.
Despite the reality of Ambien, Roseanne was cut no slack.
Jarrett said the politically correct thing – that she hoped what happened will be a "teaching moment" in race relations.
Barr also raised the ire of Muslims who accused her of Islamophobia, and that she "had to go."
I would submit If Roseanne Barr is guilty of anything, it's stupidity. She's had a career of insulting all kinds of groups, from political to religious to racial. And so far, she has gotten away with it because it's done under the banner of comedy.
But then, remember when she "sang" "The Star Spangled Banner" and grabbed her crotch? She got away with it even though she insulted the sensibilities of patriotic Americans.
However, if she's hired to do her "act," you get what you pay for if you attend and have no reason to object. In fact, the best way to do that is just not to go to her shows or buy her records or watch her on TV. That's a legitimate way to get your message across.
But the effort to destroy her personally, to destroy her career, and in fact to erase her entire career from entertainment history is not only wrong, it is immoral.
Erasing our history just because we don't like it is a sure way to speed the destruction of our society – like removing Confederate statues across the country.
That's immoral too.
Think about it.
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