After seeing the tweet, Wanda Sykes, who was a consultant on the show, quit.
ByCheyenne Haslett
May 30, 2018, 10:12 AM
5:39 Roseanne Barr seems to say that her tweet was caused by Ambien
Roseanne Barr’s tweet seems to be because of Ambien.
The star’s hit TV show was canceled because of a tweet she sent about Valerie Jarrett, who used to work for Obama.
ABC canceled the hit revival of the sitcom “Roseanne” on Tuesday, just hours after the show’s star, Roseanne Barr, sent a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, who used to work for Obama.
Barr’s early Tuesday morning post, which has since been taken down, said that Jarrett, who is black, was the child of the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes” — “muslim brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” She has since said she’s sorry.
The tweet made a lot of people angry, including Sara Gilbert, who plays Roseanne. It also made Wanda Sykes, who was a consulting producer, leave the show before it was canceled.
In a statement, Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment, said, “Roseanne’s tweet is abhorrent, repugnant, and not in line with our values, so we’ve decided to cancel her show.”
The chairman and CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, said in a tweet that there was “only one thing to do.”
Iger called Jarrett before making the show’s cancellation public.
Jarrett thanked Iger for calling her at an MSNBC town hall on racism on Tuesday night. “I want to mention that Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, called me before the announcement. He apologized and said he had no tolerance for that kind of racist or bigoted comment. He wanted me to know before he told the public that he was canceling his show, and I appreciate that,” she said, adding that she thought it was the right thing to do.
Barr’s comparison of Jarrett, a longtime friend and lawyer for the Obama family, to an ape and claim that she has ties to the group Muslim Brotherhood, which she does not, caused anger on social media right away.
Barr tweeted an apology to the show’s writers and actors late Tuesday night, saying, “I just want to apologize to the hundreds of people, wonderful liberal writers, and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show because of my stupid tweet.” She also said that she would be on the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Friday for an interview.
Guys, don’t feel sorry for me!
I just want to apologize to the hundreds of people, talented writers (who are all liberal), and actors who lost their jobs on my show because of my stupid tweet. On Friday, I’ll be on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
— @therealroseanne, Roseanne Barr May 30, 2018
On May 29, 2018, Roseanne Barr sent out a tweet that said, “If the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes had a baby, it would be VJ.”
On May 29, 2018, Roseanne Barr sent out a tweet that said, “If the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes had a baby, it would be VJ.”
Twitter
Gilbert, who played Barr’s on-screen daughter, said that Barr’s tweet was wrong. She tweeted, “Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett and a lot of other things are disgusting and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast, crew, or anyone else connected with our show.”
In another tweet, she was sad that the reboot of the sitcom was coming to an end.
Before the show was canceled, people on Twitter called her comments racist and bigoted and asked ABC’s TV group and Disney if she could stay on the show.
Sykes, who is African-American and a consulting producer on the show, tweeted that she wouldn’t be coming back to “Roseanne” because of the backlash.
Snopes did research and found that Jarrett, who is from the president’s hometown of Chicago, is not a Muslim and is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest and largest Islamic group.