Roseanne Barr’s Most Controversial Moments

Credit: Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images

Roseanne Barr’s Most Controversial Moments

Roseanne Barr is no stranger to controversy. In the wake of ABC’s decision to cancel the reboot of Roseanne, Us Weekly takes a look back at some of the star’s most shocking and questionable moments through the years.

Credit: Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images

Roseanne Barr’s Most Controversial Moments

Roseanne Barr is no stranger to controversy. In the wake of ABC’s decision to cancel the reboot of Roseanne, Us Weekly takes a look back at some of the star’s most shocking and questionable moments through the years.

Credit: Getty Images

National Anthem

The actress famously sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” ahead of a San Diego Padres vs. Cincinnati Reds game in July 1990 — and it was screechy, to say the least. She ended the performance by spitting and grabbing her crotch, mimicking the actions of some baseball players. Her rendition was widely criticized and even caught the attention of then-president George H.W. Bush, who called it “disgraceful.”

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Adolf Hitler Photos

Barr, who is Jewish, posed as Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler in a July 2009 photo shoot for the satirical Jewish magazine Heeb. The theme was her idea and featured her wearing a faux mustache and a swastika armband while holding a tray of burnt gingerbread men cookies. Barr defended the photos in a 2011 episode of The Green Room With Paul Provenza, saying there was “another, deeper layer” to them.

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Presidential Campaign

The Emmy winner announced on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in August 2011 that she planned to run for president as a Green Party candidate in the 2012 election. She later switched over to the Peace and Freedom Party ticket and often used her platform to criticize her former Green Party rival Jill Stein. Barr ultimately finished in sixth place in the popular vote.

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George Zimmerman Tweet

Barr tweeted the home address of George Zimmerman’s parents, Robert and Gladys Zimmerman, in March 2012 after George shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. The comedian added, “If Zimmerman isn’t arrested I’ll [retweet] his address again. maybe go 2 his house myself.” Robert and Gladys sued Barr in March 2014, claiming they were forced to go into hiding for years because of the tweet. The lawsuit was dismissed in July 2015 because the address was considered to be public information.

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David Hogg Tweet

The TV star spread a disproven conspiracy theory on Twitter that David Hogg, one of the survivors of the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, gave a Nazi salute at the gun control demonstration March for Our Lives. She later deleted the tweet.

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Valerie Jarrett Tweet and Show Cancellation

Barr called Valerie Jarrett, an ex-adviser to former president Barack Obama, an offspring of “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes” in a since-deleted tweet in May 2018. She later apologized and called the racist post a “joke [that] was in bad taste.” Hours later, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey announced that the reboot of Roseanne had been canceled, saying in a statement, “Roseanne’s Twitter is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”