Roseanne Barr’s Most Controversial Moments

Roseanne Barr has grown a reputation of being one of America’s controversial personalities, and the current backlash against her is just the latest example.

Since her career took off in the ’80s, she has been embroiled in numerous controversies on and off screen.

From a “distasteful” national anthem performance to her recent racist tweets, the Roseanne actress has been the target of public backlash on more more than one occasions.

Scroll though to see all of Barr’s biggest controversies.

National Anthem Incident

One of Barr’s first controversial moments is still held against her to this day.

Barr was invited to sing the “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the baseball game between the Cincinnati Reds and the San Diego Padres on July 25, 1990.

She gave a humorously bad rendition of the national anthem, with her yelling loudly and going widely off-pitch. Afterwards, she grabbed her crotch and spit on the field, to mimic the actions of a baseball player.

However, many saw her bad performance as disrespectful and the actions afterwards as blatant disrespect to the U.S., as opposed to a baseball impression. Among the offended was President George H.W. Bush, who called the display disgraceful.

Retracted Incest Claims

In 1991, Barr accused both of her parents of sexual abusing during a live performance. Barr’s family denied the claims at the time. In 2001, Bar retracted the accusations on The Oprah Winfrey Show, as Access reports.

“I think it’s the worst thing I’ve ever done,” Barr said. “It’s the biggest mistake that I’ve ever made.”

Oprah clarified, “Calling it incest? Or going public?”

Bar replied, “Well, both of those things. I think what happened was that — well, I know what happened was that I was in a very unhappy relationship. I was prescribed numerous psychiatric drugs. Incredible mixtures of psychiatric drugs to deal with the fact that I had, and still in some ways, have and always will have some mental illness. And the drugs and the combination of drugs that I was given, which were some strong, strong drugs, I totally lost touch with reality in a big, big way.”

Hitler Photo Shoot

Barr posed as Adolf Hitler in a controversial photo shoot that was meant to parody the Nazi leader.

The photos, which were featured in Jewish Publication Heeb Magazine, show the comic star baking cookies while in Nazi garb and a mustache similar to Hitler’s.

As PEOPLE reports, Barr explained on The Green Room with Paul Provenza that the photoshoot  was meant to point out that numerous other tragedies like the Holocaust have occurred too often in recent decades.

“There’s another, deeper layer to it. You know just the everyday. Moving off this Holocaust,” Barr said. “There’s been about 50 of them since then. That’s what I’m kind of trying to say. Is like, Jesus Christ it’s so f— every day now, holocausts, it’s like baking cookies.”

The photos resurfaced in 2018, causing another small controversy.

George Zimmerman Attacks

Barr was a vocal critic of George Zimmerman, the man who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. However, some say she went to far when she retweeted a tweet that contained the address of Zimmerman’s parents.

“If Zimmerman isn’t arrested I’ll [retweet] his address again — maybe go [to] his house myself,” Barr tweeted afterwards.

The tweets have since been deleted from Barr’s account.

2012 Presidential Run

Barr notoriously campaigned for a presidential nomination ahead of the 2012 election.

She attempted to win the nomination of the Green party, but lost to Jill Stein.

The Roseanne star eventually won the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party. She racked up 61,971 votes in the general election, meaning ranking her sixth overall.

Susan Rice Tweet

In 2013, Barr tweeted another racist statement similar to her current attack on Valerie Jarrett.

The comic compared former National Security Advisor Susan Rice to an ape, saying she was a “big man with swinging ape balls.”

She has since deleted the tweet.

Support for Donald Trump

Barr’s ongoing support for Donald Trump has divided fans of her comedy since she first started lobbying for him.

Her thoughts on Trump were even written into her character’s personality on season 10 of Roseanne, which resulted into an elated response from Trump. He even called her to congratulate her on the ratings success of Roseanne‘s season premiere.

“It was pretty exciting, I’ll tell you that much,” Barr told Good Morning America. “They said, ‘Hold please for the President of the United States of America’ and that was about the most exciting thing ever, and it was very sweet of him to congratulate us.”

 

Clinton Conspiracy

Just before making the remark that ended Roseanne, Barr also took aim at Chelsea Clinton. She alleged that the former First Daughter was married to George Soros’s nephew, saying her name was Chelsea Soros Clinton. Soros is a regular target of Barr and other conspiracy theorists, who claim he is a Nazi who wants to overthrow the U.S. government. 

Clinton quickly corrected Barr, who have a response of her own in return.

“Good morning Roseanne – my given middle name is Victoria,” Clinton wrote. “I imagine George Soros’ nephews are lovely people. I’m just not married to one. I am grateful for the important work Open Society does in the world. Have a great day!”

Barr replied, “Sorry to have tweeted incorrect info about you!I Please forgive me! By the way, George Soros is a nazi who turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth-were you aware of that? But, we all make mistakes, right Chelsea?”

Valerie Jarrett Attack

Barr’s latest controversy is the racist remark against Jarrett, who is a former aide to Barack Obama.

In the now-deleted tweet, she compared Jarrett to an ape in the Planet of the Apes films.

“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj,” Barr wrote.

‘Roseanne’ Cancellation

That remark led to an immediate backlash, with ABC cancelling Roseanne and Barr’s co-stars lashing out at her.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” wrote ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey.

Barr has since apologized several times for the remark as more critics pile on her for costing the jobs of hundreds.

“Don’t feel sorry for me, guys!!” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “I just want to apologize to the hundreds of people and wonderful writers (all liberal) and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet.”