'Canceled' comedian Roseanne Barr hits out at Jimmy Kimmel who offered her 'compassion'

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By Asiya Ali

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Roseanne Barr has slammed Jimmy Kimmel during an interview on Fox News about her new show.

If you're wondering who the "canceled" 70-year-old comedian is, back in 2018 she had her own self-titled show on ABC, but the network fired her after she posted an allegedly racist tweet about Barack Obama's adviser Valerie Jarrett.

At the time, Barr claimed that she didn't know Jarrett was a Black woman - or as she put it in her Youtube video: "I thought the b***h was white!" - but it was too late and she was taken off the air.

She wrote in the now-deleted tweet that the 66-year-old former adviser was the product of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes, writing: "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."

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Credit: Twitter.com

Now, the former sitcom star has found a new home for her rants about cancel culture on Fox Nation in her comeback special titled Cancel This.

In this week's episode, Barr went on a rant about her own cancellation and contended that even though the network knew that she "had made a mistake," ABC allegedly "did not allow [her] to go on any of their other shows and apologize for it".

She stressed that she should have been given the opportunity to go on shows hosted by celebrities who've had their own controversies.

In one example, she mentioned the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for his use of blackface in past comedy sketches with his ex-girlfriend Sarah Silverman.

"Jimmy Kimmel and his [former] girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, they did blackface, and [ABC] never even said 'It is wrong that you did that,'" Barr said. "And they just let that go."

Watch her interview below: 

It's true, the 55-year-old host did appear in blackface once while dressed up as NBA star Karl Malone - complete with brown face paint - and the photos resurfaced in 2020 which prompted him to apologize for it.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Kimmel admitted that the photos were "embarrassing," but also questioned the "intentions" of those who were calling attention to it.

"It was coming from the Donald Trump Jr.’s of the world, people who do a tremendous amount of damage to this country in order to elevate themselves and to make themselves famous and to make money," Kimmel said.

"And it just seemed like things were taken out of context and I wanted to put them back into context and move past it," he added at the time.

However, what's interesting about the actress calling out the late-night host is that two years before his pictures resurfaced, Kimmel was one of the few celebrities that sort of defended Barr after she was dropped by ABC.

In May 2018, he tweeted that although Barr's tweet about Jarrett was "indefensible," "angrily attacking a woman who is obviously not well does no good for anyone".

"Please take a breath and remember that mental health issues are real," Kimmel tweeted at the time. "The Roseanne I know could probably use some compassion and help right now."

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Roseanne Barr's tweet made headlines. Credit: Richard Levine / Alamy

Barr has also criticized other Hollywood personalities for being allowed to continue their careers despite having been canceled, admitting that she felt her life's work had been "stolen."

In her interview with The Los Angeles Times, she stated: "They didn’t do it to anyone else in Hollywood, although they always throw in Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. Well, Louis C.K. did lose everything, but he committed an actual [offense]. And Dave Chappelle was protected by Netflix."

Following the public backlash, Barr's career had been tarnished, however, her new show premiered on Monday (February 13).

Featured image credit: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy