Roseanne Barr Compares Jewish People to Egyptian Pharaohs in Antisemitic Barb: They ‘Also Inbreed’ | Video
Roseanne Barr, after previous backlash and job-affecting consequences over antisemitic comments and a racist tweet, all of which she has defended as jokes, continued the practice in a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s “Club Random.”
Barr, in a meandering and seemingly serious discussion with Maher about the families and offspring of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, suddenly dropped a reference to Jewish people, saying they inbreed.
“I believe that something affects you after thousands of years of inbreeding,” Barr said, referencing the pharaohs. “… That DNA thing is different from other humans, except the Jews, which also inbreed.”
Barr, after a moment of silence, wrote the comment off as a joke, saying, “No, I’m kidding.” Maher, who is quick to laugh in the show he shoots out of his Los Angeles home, did not laugh in response, and waited for Barr to continue.
“And so do people in Kentucky,” Barr said. “That was my joke. But no, the pharaohs, and that line, they’re really super inbred with their DNA.”
Later, when Maher said she has “more balls than anybody,” Barr replied, “That’s because I’m a trans man, and people don’t know that.”
Maher rebuffed her this time.
“No you’re not—you’re not a man,” Maher said. “You were never a man.”
Asked for comment, an email from Barr’s publicist, Jake Pentland, who is also her son, did not address the nature of her comments on “Club Random” or how they could be perceived as humor.
“My mother is a comedian,” Pentland said. “Back in the old days comedians were people that would tell these things called ‘jokes’ and people would hear these jokes and laugh and move on with their lives without outrage. Back then we had journalists who would cover real issues that would affect real people. These journalists would work on real stories and not spend their time trying to write ‘clickbait’ in order to pay for their expensive latte addiction and poodle grooming services.”
Representatives for Maher did not reply to TheWrap’s request for comment on Barr’s remark.
Barr’s comments come nearly six months after she made headlines and drew widespread backlash for remarks on a podcast about the Holocaust that were perceived as antisemitic, after she joked that it didn’t happen but that “6 million Jews should die right now because they cause all the problems in the world.”
In 2018, ABC canceled the network’s “Roseanne” reboot after she posted a tweet perceived by many as racist. She later apologized for the tweet.
Watch the full “Club Random” interview with Barr at the top of this story.
The post Roseanne Barr Compares Jewish People to Egyptian Pharaohs in Antisemitic Barb: They ‘Also Inbreed’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.