Roseanne Barr

Writer, actress, comedy icon.

Roseanne Barr is an American comedian, actress, writer, and television producer best known for her groundbreaking sitcom Roseanne, a groundbreaking sitcom that portrayed a blue-collar American family and their authentic struggles. The show became a massive hit, running for nine seasons and earning its star and creator an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, cementing Roseanne’s status as a trailblazer in television.

After the show ended in 1997, Barr pursued various projects, including talk shows, books, and political activism. She briefly ran for president in 2012 as a Green Party candidate before continuing her work in entertainment. In 2018, Roseanne was revived to great success, before controversial comments led to Roseanne’s firing and the show’s rebranding.

Today, she hosts the popular Roseanne Barr Podcast, and continues to perform stand-up, releasing her latest special Cancel This! in 2023.

Why did we invite her on?

There are few names in comedy with the gravitas of Roseanne Barr. A revolutionary figure who never stopped speaking her mind, she has long been a dream guest for the show. Roseanne’s outspoken nature has only inflamed in recent years, and we wanted to hear what she had to say about comedy, culture, politics, and her staggering career.

She’s been one of our dream guests since we started the show back in 2018 - there was never any doubt that she would make for a brilliant interview. That’s what we got, and we got more.


What did we talk about?

”I was always a stranger in a strange land. I always had the outsider view. I like to be alone in my own head. I like to think.”

Roseanne starts by giving us a rundown of her start in comedy, relaying engrossing tales about some of the greatest to ever do it. Sharing stories of her time with Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, Andrew Dice Clay - icons immortalised in their field - Roseanne contrasts her blinding rise-to-fame with a troubled childhood and the difficulties she faced moving to New York, taking brutal side-jobs to keep her head above water while she crafted her one-of-a-kind style.

”I was a waitress, a brawler, a stay-at-home wife, a revolutionary writer, and a stand-up comic.”

Exposed to a world so radically different from the Mormon-rich Salt Lake City she came from, she became intensely aware of her nation’s changing political climate. Radicalised by new feminist friends who would gather in socialist bookstores, Roseanne began to reflect on America’s “inherently ridiculous” culture, and when it came to crafting her classic sitcom, as she put it, “the jokes write themselves.”

Speaking of America, Francis puts the question for: “It’s in a strange place, isn’t it?”

”Hell yeah, and we came close to losing it. How far was that bullet from that ear? We nearly lost our republic, our constitution, our way of life, our lives … But the right thing happened. It’s a good thing America said ‘No, we’re not going any further down this road.’”

Roseanne’s political shift has been subject of much discussion. An avowed Trump supporter now, she wasn’t always this way inclined - for years, she was an outspoken Democrat, before going even further left and supporting the Green Party. For nearly her entire adult life, Roseanne was a fully fledged leftie. And, she argues, it was this education that allowed her to see it for what it was. ”When you disrobe it, it’s an ugly friggin’ corpse.”

We ask what she means. She elaborates:

”It’s a mind control programme. Just like the far-right is. It’s very authoritarian, and looks at any dissent as damnation. There’s a lot of self-righteousness, a grotesque, inhuman arrogance…
… and a loathing for Jews. They’re just Nazis. The left are Nazis, and the far-right are Nazis too, and they’re paid by the same people … and the vote for Trump was a rejection of that.”

To Roseanne, whoever it is that’s behind this described ‘pincer movement’ of antisemitism has aspirations of overthrowing America’s Christian republic. The natural question presents itself: who is the they she’s talking about?

”You want me to say who the owners of the world are?…