Roseanne Barr slams co-star who confronted her over her racist tweets
Roseanne Barr has launched a foul-mouthed attack on her former on-screen son, Michael Fishman, after he addressed her 2018 racism controversy last month.
The 73-year-old comedian, who played the title role in Roseanne alongside Fishman from 1988 to 1997, unloaded on her former co-star during an appearance on the Can’t Be Censored podcast.
Barr claimed Fishman, who played her on-screen son DJ Conner, had privately asked her to explain her infamous 2018 tweets to him again, despite her having addressed the controversy repeatedly in public.
She said she wasn’t interested in going over old ground a second time. “He fking doesn’t even fking know what I said,” Barr said on the years on the internet.”
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What did Roseanne Barr say to Michael Fishman?
According to Barr, she didn’t mince her words when Fishman pushed her for an explanation in private, recalling the exchange in graphic detail during the podcast episode.
“I told him, ‘Let me explain this to you, Michael. Go and fk yourself and stay fked until the day you die. Don’t fking put my name in your fking mouth. Shut the f**k up,’” she said.
She didn’t stop there, going on to dismiss Fishman’s standing to weigh in on the matter at all. “Fk you. You have no geopolitical context whatsoever to discuss what I said. Go fk yourself you little f**king worm,” Barr continued.
The actress also claimed political influence was behind Fishman’s decision to speak out, alleging the Democratic party had been ‘shoved down his throat and up his ass.’
Barr went further still, claiming she was solely responsible for Fishman keeping his role when Roseanne was revived for a reboot in 2018.
“I was the only reason you were on that show. They wanted to get rid of you in the reboot and I made them take you back. Fk you, you little fking putz,” she said.
Why did ABC cancel the Roseanne reboot?
The 2018 reboot of Roseanne was cancelled by ABC just two months after it premiered, following a series of racist tweets Barr posted targeting Chelsea Clinton, George Soros and former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.
Barr apologized the following day and announced she was quitting Twitter at the time. “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans,” she wrote. “I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”
In the aftermath of her firing, Barr accused Fishman of throwing her ‘under the bus’ after he ‘vehemently’ condemned her tweets.
The rest of the cast, including Fishman, went on to continue the series without her under a new title, The Conners.
Last month, Fishman addressed the fallout again, defending ABC’s decision to fire Barr while insisting he still holds no ill will toward her personally.
“I’ll always have compassion and love [for Barr], and I’ve shown it continuously and she helped the world understand that good people can make mistakes,” he said.
“But there was no joke. There was only damage and dehumanizing, and perpetuating racial tropes leads to real-world consequences.”
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Thomas Bamford