‘Roseanne’ Pokes Fun at Sara Gilbert’s Real-Life Sexual Orientation

Roseanne does not shy away from making fun of its cast, and this time the show went after one of its stars’ real-life sexual orientation.

During Tuesday’s second new episode, the Conners are concerned about how grandson Mark (Ames McNamara) will do on his first day of school in Langford, Ill., dressed in girls clothes as he likes to do.

“I don’t get why he’s wearing clothes like that to school,” Roseanne (Barr) says to her daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert).

“He just likes to wear clothes like that sometimes. I read a bunch of books about it and they all say to let him just be who he is … he gets good grades, he’s happy — for a Conner — and I mean that’s all I really care about,” Darlene says.

Later, Dan (John Goodman) says it’s fine that Darlene allows her son to “play dress-up” at home, but that doing it out of the house could be dangerous.

“You know what? I’m not going to raise him that way,” Darlene says. “And by the way, you didn’t have any problem when I wore basketball shorts and a Bulls jersey to school every day.”

“God did not give me this big a head to hold a narrow mind,” Dan says. “I’m totally cool with girls who like basketball, boys who like sewing, but you’re dreaming if you think he’s not in for a world of hurt.”

“And we’re totally not bigoted because we already came to terms with the fact that you were gay,” Roseanne says to Darlene.

“I’m not gay,” Darlene says. “We’re not talking about gay. The kid is 9 years old, and wherever it falls on I’m fine with it.”

“So am I, I’m totally OK with gay, my daughter is gay,” Dan says, with Darlene once again denying she is.

The scene serves to poke fun at Gilbert, who is openly gay in real life. Before the reboot was even ordered, Gilbert and Goodman did a skit on CBS’ The Talk where the actors reprised their Roseanne roles and Gilbert “came out” to her father as a talk-show host.

The skit is what led Gilbert to reach out to her cast members about a potential revival series, which is now back on ABC.

Roseanne airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo Credit: ABC / Robert Trachtenberg