Roseanne Barr's CANCEL THIS! debuted last week on FOX NATION. It was the first comedy Barr's done on a network or streamer since being forced out of her own show by ABC back in 2018.
LGBTQ NATION took offense to the special. Based on? Clips.
That's a real shame. Roseanne is not a racist. (We know Roseanne.) And she's also not a homophobe. In what world does LGBTQ NATION exist that they are unaware of Nancy (Sandra Bernhard's character on the original Roseanne) or her girlfriend Marla (Morgan Fairchild) or the huge controversy when Roseanne was kissed by guest star Mariel Hemingway or Martin Mull's Leon or . . .
Point being, Roseanne via ROSEANNE spent the 80s and 90s breaking down walls for the LGBTQ+ community. So you'd think a publication for that community would give her the benefit of the doubt -- or at least watch the special before trashing it.
Only thing possibly more disappointing is THE MARY SUE -- which presents itself as pro-woman and apparently calling Roseanne "cat turd" is pro-woman enough for them. THE MARY SUE went to town on Roseanne too.
In the special, Roseanne notes that her brother and her sister are gay. She notes that they are married with children and their marriages have lasted decades while she, the straight woman, has had multiple marriages. She takes that message to a conservative audience and does so at a time when the LGBTQ+ community is under attack.
She's given no credit for that and, in fact, both outlets refuse to even acknowledge it.
Roseanne herself has been under attack. She offered a Tweet and she was immediately labeled a racist. Her years of work on racial issues was ignored, her fighting ABC to integrate one of their shows behind the scenes and in front of the camera are ignored. Her bringing on African-American characters to her sitcom was ignored. ABC wasn't really keen on African-American characters unless it was a 'Black' show and then they'd generally make room for no more than two of those.
Or did you not notice that in the first five seasons of NYPD BLUE -- a series set in NYC, a series set in the diverse city of NYC -- 15 main characters in those early seasons and only one was African-American. (In season seven, Henry Simmons would make it two.) Of course that didn't bother ABC nor did it bother ABC that African-Americans were over represented in the guest stars -- as criminals.
Knowing anything that happened before the Tweet isn't necessary. And it encourages the stupidity -- especially at THE MARY SUE -- where people pretend that BOB'S BURGERS is doing today what ROSEANNE did in the 80s and 90s. No, you idiots, it's not. There is no effort at exploring working class issues on BOB'S BURGERS. Quit pretending. Money is not a real issue on the show, class it not an issue on the show, nor does it push boundaries. It's a nice piece of animation but it is not ROSEANNE.
Both THE MARY SUE and LGBTQ NATION took her to task for asking "What's a woman" and answering she was.
Excuse us, she roared that she was.
We're confused.
How was that anti-trans?
Let's remember that ROSEANNE came back with a child questioning gender roles. Let's also remember that the center of Roseanne's comedy has always been that she is in control. What's a woman? Picture her roaring "I am!" as easily as you can picture responding the same with "What's your worst nightmare?"
Roseanne brought out her persona.
Was this their first time seeing the character of Roseanne?
"People say I'm not very feminine," she'd declare on stage before roaring, "Suck my dick."
THE MARY SUE, seeing themselves about a decade younger than they actually are, were bothered because Roseanne made fun of young people.
Really, she made fun of young people? Well that's just . . . Typical of every joke she's ever told.
She created the persona -- the domestic goddess who made fun of her husband and her children. Did they never grasp that?
It doesn't sound like they've ever watched a single episode of ROSEANNE -- or even single scene of Roseanne and Becky or Roseanne and Darlene or Roseanne and DJ slinging it back and forth.
They were bothered that the persona was a crotchety older person. We all get that Roseanne is now 70 -- and not telling people to stay limber so they can have sex. She is -- and has been for several years now -- embracing old age. It's only natural that she would use this persona to critique the world.
LGBTQ NATION was offended that she screamed, "Get a job!" They found her so mean to the youth.
We watched the actual special, not some clips. So we're aware that Roseanne, who loves all of her kids, was making jokes about them -- the one who got his college degree and now occupies her office playing video games and leaving soda cans and dirty socks all over.
And that persona? Not really all that different from the character of Roseanne in the 80s and 90s.
She was so mean to liberals!!!!
That was another complaint from LGBTQ NATION which made clear that there is no direct link between thought and the act of writing.
Roseanne has never liked liberals. She was a radical back then, She's one now. She has always felt liberals stifle the working class and rip off the working class. That's exactly why Barbara Ehrenreich became a fan in the first place.
She was doing a comedy performance. She was making points about humanity -- including that the country needed to learn to listen to one another and stop being so divided. Including that gay men and lesbian woman can marry, have a family and be happy and productive.
She might have bothered some with her comments regarding MeToo but only if you didn't grasp what she was saying.
Roseanne calls out rape and assault to this day. Her problem was with celebrity MeToo which has included a lot of women who are trying to harness whatever happened to them into a career. There is no accountability. That's her point about what did you think was going to happen at 3:00 am when you went to his hotel room? It's an opinion that another radical shares -- Chrissie Hynde.
And Roseanne knows about _______. A MeToo poster girl accusing Harvey. An actress who got her first major role by putting out for a woman. Her whole career has been about that -- putting out to get roles -- and when the body and face were no longer all that, she couldn't put out and she couldn't get roles. But now she wants to whine about Harvey? Yeah, we happen to agree with Roseanne on that. Because the woman she slept with actually loved her and didn't realize that _____ was just coming on to her and flattering her to get film role.
There are a lot of women who are true survivors. There are a number of women showing up to claim they were victims who, point of fact, repeatedly used the casting couch and now see a chance to relaunch their long ago failed careers by playing the innocent victim.
She makes a joke about Democrats and abortion. It didn't bother us nor did we think, "Roseanne's anti-choice!" Roseanne will never be anti-choice.
She is attempting to restart her career after the industry wrongly shut her down -- and stole her creation. Ann thinks Roseanne started off strong at the beginning of the special, right out of the gate. She may be right. We were nervous watching because we do care about Roseanne and we were worried. To our eyes, she was a little wobbly at the start. But she was funny throughout and by the end of the first third, she was firing on all cylinders.
NETFLIX didn't court her for a special. Though they're happy to promote Dave Chappelle's transphobia, but they refuse to touch Roseanne. (Dave's persona is making those jokes. He has every right to make them and people have every right to object if that's their response. We've made that point all along and think Roseanne would agree because, as she noted in her special, we need to be talking with each other.) FOX NATION offered her a special, that they would deliver to their viewers. And Roseanne did deliver. She was funny.
If you want to dissect the special, please do so. But you kind of need to stream it first. If you just want to hate on Roseanne, how about you be upfront about that?
THE MARY SUE looks sadly out of touch. They're so eager to attack a woman that they can't even listen to what she said. (Sort of the way it worked in May of 2018.) LGBTQ NATION looks even worse. They're attacking an ally for supposed things she didn't do and refusing to acknowledge what she did do. Isn't their focus supposed to be on the LGBTQ+ community?
Now maybe you'll find Roseanne funny in her special and maybe you won't. There's no right or wrong on that. Comedy appeals to some people and not to others and certain comedy doesn't even appeal to those who love comedy. It's a matter of what you enjoy. But maybe next time THE MARY SUE and LGBTQ NATION can just write their attack on Roseanne and not pretend they're reviewing a special (one they haven't even seen)? It would probably result in something just as bitchy but at least they could be honest about it.