It kind of felt like we put that Roseanne Barr business behind us, didn’t it? Her incredibly racist tweet calling former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes led to serious backlash and showed us the real Roseanne at a moment when the whole world was paying attention to her. If anyone hadn’t noticed the racist undertones of her show’s return, or if they just didn’t care, at least the tweet immediately put ABC in a precarious position. The network canceledRoseanne (which had stellar ratings, by the way), pulled re-runs, and green-lit a spin-off. The whole ordeal was unsurprising, offensive, and exhausting.
But Roseanne isn’t done with all that just yet. Today, a clip of her going berserk during an interview, parroting an excuse for the racist tweet—that she thought Jarrett was white—has started making the rounds, and... it’s truly a sight to behold. Watch the clip, uploaded to Roseanne's own YouTube channel, above. TMZ writes that the 65-year-old actress' son Jake Pentland "tells us that was 100 percent genuine and the result of a lot of hours spent in the studio."
The video starts with an off-camera interviewer saying something about a president and a hooker. Roseanne—who seems totally disoriented, irritated, and is smoking indoors—soon starts yelling: “I’m trying to talk about Iran! I’m trying to talk about Valerie Jarrett, the Iran deal!” The interviewer says, “You’ve told me this 300 times.” She counters, “That’s what my tweet was about.” The interviewer repeats, “I know, you’ve explained this literally—”
He's cut off by Roseanne, who channels the rage of every white lady who has ever asked “where is your manager?”, looks directly into the camera, widens her eyes and screams at the top of her lungs: “I thought the bitch was white! GODDAMMIT! I thought the bitch was white! Fuck!” The interviewer laughs, and she takes a drag from her shitty cigarette.
What would it matter to the specifics of the Iran deal if Valerie Jarrett was white or not is besides the point, apparently. The confident YouTube description reads: “Roseanne, like always, cuts though the bullshit and gets the heart of the matter[sic]." It's wild how “cut the bullshit” became a synonym for saying every racist thing that flies into your head.
Hell, even if we believe Roseanne “thought the bitch was white,” she still declared a former Obama official was a member of the “Muslim brotherhood" who "looked like an “ape," and has now called her a “bitch.” If you can somehow believe she’s not racist (even after perusing the history of other racist drivel she never apologized for), she’s revealing herself to be, at minimum, rude and incapable of showing respect toward a fellow successful woman.
TMZ writes this clip is "a sneak peek of what's to come," and that Roseanne's "been holed up in her son Jake Pentland's Full Moon & High Tide studio all week shooting interviews with friends and family members." Roseanne promised a TV interview to fans on Twitter earlier this month, but backtracked two days later, saying such interviews are "too stressful and too untrustworthy for me and my fans." Instead, she proposed, she would film the interview herself and post it to her YouTube channel.
To my wonderful fans who I treasure and love-who have carried me these past weeks when I was 2 weak 2 carry myself: I will be doing a TV interview this week. I’ll tell u about it tomorrow!
After a lot of thought, I decided that I won’t be doing any TV interviews, too stressful & untrustworthy 4 me & my fans. I’m going to film it myself & post it on my youtube channel in the next week-the entire explanation of what happened & why! I love you all-sign up & get ready.
Considering how much Roseanne allegedly begged ABC to not cancel her show, it’s become clearer and clearer she's just sorry she's finally living the consequences for her racist behavior, because she’s making no moves to learn from it or even take accountability. And it wasn't the damn Ambien.
After the video was posted online, TMZ reported that it was actually a clip from a new talk show, hosted by the actress herself, that will air on her YouTube channel in an attempt to sidestep "any big networks." The clip was allegedly filmed at a studio belonging to Roseanne's son, Jake Pentland, who added this alternative way of creating a talk show was "the only way to get a truly unfiltered and unedited version of his mom." Guests are to include Pentland himself, Roseanne's boyfriend, Johnny Argent, former Roseanne crew member Allan Stephan, as well as her former campaign manager Thomas Muhammad , who is black and Muslim.
Pentland shared yet another behind-the-scenes clip of his mom preparing to film for the talk show, this time chanting "fuck racism" repeatedly in front of her son and some other members of her team. The video is captioned: "The media narrative is mom is having a meltdown.... she’s more clear than ever. DON’T BELIEVE THE MEDIA."
