Let me say this right out of the gate - I did not watch this show. I do not watch any shows that are on cable or satellite or whatever because I don't stay in one place long enough to justify that sort of connection. However, i do remember when it was going down and thought it was absurd.
I don't know what was more absurd - The fact that Roseanne Barr thought it was a good idea to interject herself into politics or the network's reaction to it. We all know that everything is racist and her comment about Valerie Jarrett was of course lumped into that category. Roseanne said
"muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." (VJ meaning Valerie Jarrett) and I can certainly see why some people would find that offensive but this just kind of goes back to what I have said about comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr, and Chris Rock refusing to do comedy in certain cities because they are going to be overly criticized for statements that anyone who isn't a social justice warrior can clearly see is a joke.
source
do they look alike? do they not? does it matter?
There are a lot of mainstream comedians that continually refer to Donald Trump as some sort of Orange (insert whatever animal you want here) and those people still have jobs - so what is the difference in these sort of jokes other than the fact that Roseanne is Caucasian and also a conservative?
I don't care that this show was cancelled but apparently a lot of people did because after Roseanne was removed the show was revamped as "The Conners," which was the same show but without Roseanne Barr the viewership dropped from around 18 million viewers (28 million after delayed streaming was factored in) to much lower numbers frequently dropping below 7 million.
I understand that ABC probably felt the social justice pressure to do something but I wonder if they are regretting this move. Roseanne later apologized for the Tweet and I think that should have been the end of it. Let the viewers decide, right?
Does Roseanne really regret what she did? Or was she simply attempting some damage control? I suspect the latter. However, i think that ABC's decision to axe the whole program (which was the most successful TV show in the world at the time) was a decision they do regret, just not publicly.
In the meantime you probably don't need to worry about Roseanne being in the soup kitchen line at any time in the near future. Her net worth of $80 million will probably keep her safe from bank repossessions for the time being.
Personally, the only thing that I really regret about this entire ordeal is that the PC nature of the world is just out of control. It seems that everyone who Tweets would probably realize that saying anything even remotely controversial is going to have ill consequences and maybe.... just maybe, consider not doing it?
What do you think? Was the tweet racist (i don't think it was, but i do think it was in poor taste and also really really stupid,) do you think that ABC overreacted a bit? I am sure the people in the finance department probably think so.