Roseanne Barr claims 'world cannot handle satire' after saying '6 million Jews should die'

The clip went viral and Barr was labelled antisemitic and a Holocaust denier. However, she insisted her words were taken out of context and that she was being ironic.

Speaking in an interview with Piers Morgan earlier this week, Barr addressed the growing fallout.

Piers asked: “Have we gone mad, Roseanne, in our world? When I look at all the fallout to the things you say or do, I look at the apoplexy that people bring to jokes, to humour, to sarcasm, to irony, all these things, and I really despair that the very essence of comedy, for example, is being expunged from human life.”

She responded: “Yes it is. You should despair, Piers, and so should anybody who has a brain or any humanity whatsoever, or any connection to any other human beings on earth, they should despair too.

“I say that they are weaponising stupidity and people have sunk to such a level that they can’t handle satire because satire is when you take two disparate subjects and bring them together to defamiliarise reality such as a poet does with words. 

“Defamiliarise reality and they cannot hold two disparate ideas in their head at the same time because they are fed b*****t 24/7 over the media.”

Addressing the Holocaust comments further, she added: “I meant the opposite … and the fact that it went over everybody’s head isn’t my fault.”

After replaying what she had said, Piers asked: “Why do these things happen?"

Barr explained: “Because I’m a targeted individual. For 6,000 years there has been a Jewish civil war and nobody knows about it, I speak about it a lot.

“It’s at its climax right now and I have been targeted by largely Jewish people on the other side of the political spectrum.”

Barr also ranted about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Jewish heritage.

Morgan pointed out that Zelensky is Jewish and "de facto, not a Nazi," prompting Barr to rant about the Ukrainian president.

She said: "I know, but he's not a good one! Are all Jews the same? For God's sake, talk about anti-Semitic! 

“Just cause the guy's a Jew doesn't mean he likes Jews or that he is doing anything good for the Jews. I mean, so what?"

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said Barr's comments were "irresponsible".

He said: "Sarcasm or not, Roseanne Barr's comments about Jews and the Holocaust are reprehensible and irresponsible. 

“This isn't funny. And shame on Theo Von for letting it go unchallenged and instead diving into conspiracy theories about Jews and Hollywood."

But Von defended Barr's comments on the episode. He wrote at the time: "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? (sic)"

Barr was raised in Utah in a Jewish family, her grandparents on both sides were immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. According to the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, her grandfather changed his name from "Borisofsky" to "Barr" when fleeing persecution in the United States.

She shot to fame as an outspoken comedian who was given her eponymous show Roseanne in 1988. The programme, which was a huge hit for ABC, ran for 10 years before being revived briefly in 2018.

It was later cancelled after Barr made a 'racially insensitive' post about a Black political advisor as well as posting support for the Qanon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories.

She has also previously attracted criticism for her controversial views on Jews and Israel.

In 2009, she dressed as Adolf Hitler for a cover for Heeb magazine and posed pulling cookies shaped like people out of the oven.