Roseanne Barr and her original “Roseanne” co-star Michael Fishman are still feuding over the cancellation of the show’s 2018 reboot. Fishman made headlines in August for saying “the show was rightfully canceled” after Barr posted a tweet that appeared to link Barack Obama’s advisor Valerie Jarrett, who is Black, to “Planet of the Apes.” Barr was accused of being racist but has long maintained that was not her intention.
During a new interview on the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly), Barr was asked to weigh in on Fishman’s comments supporting ABC’s decision to pull the 2018 “Rosemann” reboot. She did so by unleashing a tirade against her former co-star.
“He fucking doesn’t even fucking know what I said, even though I’ve explained it 10,000 times for nine years on the Internet,” Barr said. “He hasn’t even taken the time to listen to what I say because he’s a bigot. And he’s a brainwashed bigot.”
Barr claimed that Fishman once asked her to clarify her controversial tweet that got the reboot canceled, to which she told him: “Let me explain this, Michael, go and fuck yourself and stay fucked ‘till the day you die. Don’t put my name in your fucking mouth, shut the fuck up. You are an ignoramus and a bigot, and you have no idea what I said because it contradicts the Democrat party platform that you’ve had shoved down your throat and up your ass. So just fuck you. You have no geopolitical context whatsoever to discuss what I said.”
“Roseanne” was canceled after Barr tweeted: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The tweet was widely perceived as a racist insult toward Valerie Jarrett, although Barr claims otherwise. She stressed in her new interview that she was evoking the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and that “Planet of the Apes” is a nickname she used to describe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“You think I said Black people look like monkeys,” Barr continued in her lashing out at Fishman. “Go fuck yourself, you little fucking worm. And I’m glad they fired you because I was the only reason you were ever on that show. They wanted to get rid of you in the reboot and I made them take you back.”
Barr is referring to Fishman’s abrupt exit from “The Connors,” the ABC sitcom that continued the “Roseanne” franchise sans Barr following the reboot’s cancellation. “The Connors” ran for seven seasons, with Fishman reprising D.J. Conner for four seasons before revealing in 2022 that “I was told I would not be returning for season 5.” It’s never been confirmed why ABC dropped him.
Fishman has always opposed Barr’s tweet. He “vehemently” condemned the post after the “Roseanne” reboot was canceled and called his co-stars comments “reprehensible and intolerable.” She fired back on the time by posting: “You throw me under the bus.”
In a video posted to his Instagram in August, Fishman spoke out against claims that it was “woke crap” that got the “Roseanne” reboot canceled.
“I get these kinds of ignorant and inaccurate comments daily,” Fishman said. “After eight years, turning the other cheek is really not helping. So, I guess the world failed to learn the lesson, so I’m going to point out — we are perpetuating a lie, and people are using a political smoke screen to justify the indefensible… Those justifications, they’re leading to real consequences, real crimes, situations like Trey Reed and Tasha Fortune, because dehumanizing people is never a joke.”
Fishman acknolwedged that comedians can make people laugh at the “darkest” of topics, but “sadly, in this case, there was no joke. And the show was rightfully canceled.”