Roseanne Barr is an alarmingly stupid person. She hasn't always been that way — I remember her original appearance on Johnny Carson, when she was a rare blue collar female voice cracking wise about her life. Her first show was pretty good too.
But obviously the years have not been kind to Roseanne Barr. She managed a comeback, and was starring in ABC's No. 1 show in 2018 when she sent a tweet suggesting that Michelle Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett was the progeny of an ape. ABC canned her faster than soup. At the time, I saw it as a cautionary tale about the importance of professional public relations.
She doesn't have a career to ruin anymore, but is still saying astoundingly stupid things ... her latest gaffe, well, it's too idiotic to describe. Google "Roseanne Barr" and "holocaust" if you want the details. It made me wonder what I've written about her in the past and I noticed this — ANOTHER column mocking Donald Trump YEARS before he decided to inflict himself upon our nation as its president. It doesn't predate my first jab, in 2000, but being from 2007, it's worth sharing, as a reminder that I understood 16 years ago what too many people STILL can't figure out. I've kept the column's subheadings.
That Donald Trump sure has gall. After he voided the contracts of those unfortunates who bought early in his condo tower project at Wabash and Wacker, pointing at a hidden line of legalese to yank back the units he sold them and snatch their profit, I assumed it would be a long time before he'd dare set foot in this town again.
Yet, there he was, in the flesh, trying to lure more dupes to buy, hoping they'll ignore his reneging on sales to the first group.
Does the Trump name really confer status? In New York, maybe, where they're trained to wait behind red velvet ropes and gawp at minor celebrities. But it's hard to believe that Chicagoans fall for that nonsense. Living in a Trump Building is like driving a Hummer — a lunge at status that indicts more than it elevates.
But they are home...
Certain subjects rarely get in this column — divorces, for instance. They are inevitably what I call "a dog's breakfast" — a complex jumble of messed-up stuff that would take an enormous amount of effort and energy to make sense of.
The immigration bill is the same way. At first, I thought, aha, at last, a bipartisan agreement! But the more you look at it, the more it seems a hodgepodge that really doesn't accomplish anything.
Instead of worrying about the bill itself — which probably will go nowhere, at least in its current form — let's take a moment to glance at the two main alternatives.
First, there is the "send-'em-back" fantasy. No responsible person actually believes that all 12 million illegal immigrants should be rounded up — held in concentration camps, perhaps — and then shipped back to Mexico.
But that dream underlies much public opinion. It lurks behind those lashing out at "amnesty." They were wounded somehow, in their past — maybe someone once peed in their alley, maybe they were awakened by a loud car stereo, maybe someone once tried to speak Spanish to them, and they were frightened, and the fear stuck.
Sending illegals home being impossible, those who find the idea appealing instead tacitly endorse a second route: doing nothing:
Forget that we've already been doing nothing, for years. Forget that doing nothing leaves us with an enormous underclass of noncitizens who can't vote and have only limited legal rights.
Which leads us back to the bill. Maybe it'll work, maybe we'll find a new compromise. But we need to do something. Because we've tried nothing and it doesn't work.
Instead of worrying about the bill itself — which probably will go nowhere, at least in its current form — let's take a moment to glance at the two main alternatives.
First, there is the "send-'em-back" fantasy. No responsible person actually believes that all 12 million illegal immigrants should be rounded up — held in concentration camps, perhaps — and then shipped back to Mexico.
But that dream underlies much public opinion. It lurks behind those lashing out at "amnesty." They were wounded somehow, in their past — maybe someone once peed in their alley, maybe they were awakened by a loud car stereo, maybe someone once tried to speak Spanish to them, and they were frightened, and the fear stuck.
Sending illegals home being impossible, those who find the idea appealing instead tacitly endorse a second route: doing nothing:
Forget that we've already been doing nothing, for years. Forget that doing nothing leaves us with an enormous underclass of noncitizens who can't vote and have only limited legal rights.
Which leads us back to the bill. Maybe it'll work, maybe we'll find a new compromise. But we need to do something. Because we've tried nothing and it doesn't work.
Today's chuckle:
In time for Memorial Day, a tribute to vets, from Roseanne Barr:
In time for Memorial Day, a tribute to vets, from Roseanne Barr:
Vietnam vets, I have a lot of empathy for them. They had to go to a horrible place and perform a hideous job for people who didn't even appreciate it.I know what that's like; I used to be a waitress at Denny's.
—Originally published in the Sun-Times, May 27, 2007
Thanks for the recent history of a couple of American messes.
ReplyDeleteBoth Roseanne & T**** have a lot in common, as both are seriously mentally ill & T**** also has dementia!
ReplyDelete1) I figured it out. Drumpf's and asshole.
ReplyDelete2) Not sure what the stats are, but I'm sure all 12 million of those 2007 illegal immigrants aren't Mexican. So why should we send em back to Mexico?
3) Happy Dr King Day!
Roseanne's punch line was right on target, very funny and quite true -- according to my granddaughter who was also once a waitress at Denny's. But as a Viet Nam veteran, I can tell you that Viet Nam is a beautiful country (or was before we started dropping napalm right and left), full of beautiful and hard working patriotic people, whom the lowest rated soldier/sailor felt empowered to abuse and denigrate, until we decided to pull up stakes and flee the horrible mess we'd created --- I don't think they have anything to thank us for.
ReplyDeletejohn
The Vietnamese have a quality that is in far too short of a supply in this here United Egos of UhMuriKKKa...forgiveness.
DeleteAnd let's not forget...Ho Chi Minh came calling in the Ike administration, asking for help in throwing off the yoke of colonial exploitation.
Ike decided to stick with the French...
I think the Vietnamese love us now, as they sell us a lot of stuff they make. I have stainless steel bowls from IKEA made there & a Marshall Field's down winter coat also made there 30 years ago.
DeleteYeah, they make and sell us a lot of stuff, especially stuff made by companies based in America. I've been wearing New Balance shoes for almost 40 years, long before Bill Clinton made them cool. Hell, long before Clinton was cool, and long before anyone had ever even HEARD of Slick Willie.
DeleteNew Balance shoes were originally manufactured in Massachusetts, like so much other footwear used to be. They certainly weren't cheap, but they were very durable. Then, they weren't. A brand-new pair just fell apart. I bitched loudly, and they replaced them. Not with shoes from outside of Boston, but with shoes that were made in Vietnam.
New Balance shoes aren't being made in Vietnam anymore. The cost of a new pair of their shoes has dropped even more than it did a few years back, because now the company makes them in Indonesia. Even Vietnam got too expensive to continue operations there. I've heard it's a beautiful and prosperous place now, and a major tourist destination. Just watch out for the landmines.
Rosanne's latest gaffe (from June of 2023, it seems) is indeed too idiotic to describe. But after having read it, my first thought was, "Well, that's just stupid." I didn't have a second thought, because the first thought pretty much covered it, and I was already moving on to other matters.
ReplyDeleteThis is a general approach that I have developed as I grow older: I'm just not bothering to waste my time with stupid people anymore. I much prefer the company of smart folks, and when I come across stupid ones, I simply move on. I don't attack them for it (it may be mental issues and I'm not going to pretend that I'm a doctor) or even reveal my own thoughts on whatever the topic was; I just find better things to do with my time, and there's always something better to do out there.
That's not to say that stupid people are incapable of causing damage (e.g. voting for Trump), but when it's someone like Roseanne who's the topic of discussion, I just don't see that she's worth the effort.
Never liked her as a person, or as a comedienne. Right from the beginning, back in the 80s. And I blew her off for good after she "sang" the National Anthem at a Padres game, and pissed off most of the country by shouting it loud and off-key, and then grabbing her crotch and scratching her behind while doing so.
DeleteNever figured out whether she thought she was being funny or was actually trying to make some kind of political statement. I'd guess she was merely going for the laughs, but the joke was lost on me, and on millions of other folks. She was both disrespectful and unamusing.
From the early 90s on, I chose to ignore her. My wife adored Roseanne's TV show, and called me a sexist pig. I just shrugged and walked out of the room, and asked her, nicely, to keep the sound down. Had no interest in either seeing her, or hearing her annoying and whiny voice. So...I didn't.
And now I hear that she told a Holocaust joke. Must have thought that it was quite okay, since she's Jewish and all. And probably even funny. Nope. Just sick...and lame...and pathetic.
When did we start taking comedianes so seriously? Dick Gregory ? Lenny Bruce? I'm not the biggest fan of standup or sitcoms but I do like satire. Its just hard to know for sure when its being employed. With some satirists , its always. With some its played as as a card, the satire card, when they find themselves in trouble for taking things too far in their routine.
ReplyDeletePolitical satire is of particular interest to me, but as a layman or lame man, I've found its best to stay silent.
Its often out of line to repeat such sentiments because you dont have a history to put it into proper context, or you dont have standing in a certain community. Blacks can joke about blacks , jewish people about jews etc. But I can't retell these jokes.
Roseanne was making fun of people butchering the national anthem as well as athletes well known for crotch grabbing on screen and off. It went over like a lead ballon possibly because she's a woman and sports are a testosterone fueled past time.
It seems all so inconsequential when are leaders are spouting vitriol in a very important enterprise. Our democratic system, and many people pay no attention.
Well he seems to have trumped them in Iowa but no surprise there I guess.
ReplyDeletewish I was as stupid as ms. Barr . she's worth like $80m
ReplyDeleteMaybe you are...
DeleteMaybe I am. But I haven't been smart enough to engineer a career that resulted in generational wealth . I'm smart enough to know just because you don't like someones pov or agree with them calling them names just makes you look bad. I
DeleteGenerational wealth is overrated.
DeleteBarr's gender wasn't the cause , and shouldn't be insulation for her tasteless version of the anthem. If she has issues with other performers abuses, she had better opportunities. I would agree if that were her problem as I chafe at the vain singers who think it's a jazz song or want to show off their vocal range for a national audience. It diminishes the serious intent of the anthem. Better to not make it a required start to any public event, than to trivialize by letting inflated egos demean the song.
ReplyDelete