Is Roseanne Barr Jewish? Actress' sarcastic remarks on the Holocaust trigger online cancellation storm

Roseanne Barr is a popular American actress, comedian, writer, and producer, famous for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. During a recent episode of the comedy podcast, This Past Weekend, with fellow comic Theo Von, Barr made some anti-Jewish comments, triggering an online cancellation storm.

The 70-year-old is Jewish in origin, which is why her anti-Jewish comments have left netizens furious. It must be noted that whether or not the remark was sarcastic is unclear.

“Nobody died in the Holocaust. It should happen. Six million Jews should die right now ‘cause they cause all the problems in the world,'” said Barr.

On Tuesday, June 27, Theo Von tried took to Twitter to imply that Barr was being sarcastic when she made the controversial statement. In a tweet, he wrote:

“This Roseanne Barr clip was sarcasm folks. A clip taken out of a long sarcastic rant she had during our chat. Can we not recognize sarcasm anymore?”

In another tweet, he added the full video:

However, netizens don't seem too inclined to believe Von's suggestion that Barr was being sarcastic. Ever since the video went viral, Twitter has been flooded with backlash against the actor, with many calling for her cancellation.

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Who is Roseanne Barr? All we know about the Emmy-winning actress

Roseanne Cherrie Bar was born on November 3, 1952, to a Jewish family in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her mother was Helen Davis, an accountant and cashier, while her father was Jerome Hershel “Jerry” Barr, a salesman.

When she was 3 years old, Barr was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy on the left side of her face. At the time, a Mormon preacher healed her. Following this, Roseanne Barr became a Mormon during her teenage years. In fact, she joined several Mormon churches across Utah and was even elected as the President of a Mormon youth group.

She started off her career in stand-up comedy and performed in gigs such as The Comedy Store, The Tonight Show, and Late Night with David Letterman. However, she soon landed the role of a lifetime in the TV sitcom Roseanne, which originally ran from 1988 to 1997.

It was her exemplary acting on the show as the eponymous protagonist that earned her an Emmy Award, a Kid’s Choice Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

In 1989, Roseanne Barr published her autobiography, Roseanne – My Life As a Woman. The second one, published in 1994, was called My Life. Her other projects include the film, She-Devil, giving voice-over for Look Who’s Talking Too, and Saturday Night Live.

In 1998, she debuted on Broadway and earned her name for enacting the Wicked Witch of the West in the play The Wizard of Oz. The same year, she also began her own talk show, titled The Roseanne Show.

Fast forward to the 2000s. Barr returned to stand-up comedy with Roseanne Barr: Blonde and B*tchin. She also hosted the reality show, The Search for the Funniest Mom in America. She was also the judge on N.B.C.’s Last Comic Standing in 2014, alongside Keenen Ivory Wayans and Russell Peters.

Over the years, she has also been politically active and a member of the left-wing Peace and Freedom Party. In fact, during the 2012 presidential campaign, she ran and earned roughly 70,000 votes.

Barr has been married thrice, but has been steady with her partner Johnny Argent since 2003. She has five children.

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Roseanne Barr has been drawn into controversies before

This is not the first time Roseanne Barr has found herself embroiled in controversy.

On March 27, 2018, the 10th season of Roseanne was re-aired on ABC. In fact, after its overnight success, on March 30, the channel decided to renew the show for the 11th season. However, Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet led to the show's immediate cancellation:

“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj [Valerie Jarrett].”

The insensitive comment about the former advisor to President Obama not only led to the calling off of her show but also invited backlash on social media.

What’s interesting is that last month only, Roseanne Barr called out her former Roseanne co-star Sara Gilbert, whose tweet cancelled the show in 2018. Not only that, at present, Gilbert in her talk show, constantly brings up Roseanne’s racist tweet(s), which forced Barr to slam her during a recent Megyn Kelly podcast.

“It wasn’t enough that [Gilbert] stabbed me in the back and did what she did to me there, but then she would go on her talk show every day and talk about how shocked she was at my racism on top of it.”

Now, it seems, she is facing a similar backlash following her anti-Semitic comments. Here's how netizens have been reacting to the clip on social media.

So far, whether or not Barr's recent anti-Jewish comments were sarcastic or not is still unclear. She has not yet reacted to the backlash.

However, she did thank her co-star John Goodman for defending her on Twitter.

It must also be noted that Twitter has also issued a content under posts calling out Roseanne Barr for the comments. The advisory cites Theo Von's clarification post and links back to the video of the podcast on YouTube.