Roseanne Barr is still not done talking about her politics, as well as her ABC show’s cancellation, but that was just the tip of the iceberg during her appearance on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast this week.
During the episode, which went fully off the rails almost immediately, the two comedians and old friends discussed Barr’s conviction that “psychopath billionaires” are trying to kill “regular people” with vaccines, the testosterone she’s now taking thanks to Joe Rogan, her conviction that Satanists are “all over the place” but don’t realize they’re doing the Dark Lord’s work, and her theory that inbreeding has produced a reptilian-like subcategory of humans with distinct DNA.
“They’re trying to fucking kill us!” Barr told Maher of the supposedly murderous billionaires. “That’s why they’re trying to give us the vaccine.”
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While Maher and Barr reminisced on decades of friendship during the episode, the host didn’t hesitate to point out just how many conspiracy theories Barr seems to believe. He also noted that she used to be a socialist and said that now, she’s more of a “socialist nazi.”
“I’m not a Nazi,” Barr countered before an immediate pivot: “Remember when me and youse got in a fistfight at the Playboy Mansion?”
That’s how most of the free-wheeling conversation unfolded—and at times, even Maher seemed to struggle to understand his interviewee. As the two discussed their affection for liberal cities within red states, Barr offered, “It’s like blue mixed with red, commie, equals purple. You know what I’m saying, Bill, with the hair and the whole thing? It’s beyond blue. It’s the next step toward Stalinist.” His response: “Wait, what are we talking about?
At one point, Barr said, “At least half of my life, nobody gets what I’m saying—if it’s a joke, or serious, or what.”
As often happens, Barr found herself repeating the same defense she’s used for years about the racist Valerie Jarrett tweet that caused ABC to fire her from ABC’s Roseanne reboot: “I thought the bitch was white.”
At the time, even Maher joked on his HBO show Real Time that Barr “has said she has multiple personalities—and unfortunately one of them is quite a racist.”
Barr added: “If you can't take a joke, fuck you, you fascist. That’s how I feel, Bill. And you know what, I don't give a fuck what color your ass is. If you ain't doing right for your own people or anybody in this country where people are sleeping in the streets and it makes me fucking sick, then fuck you.”
Additionally, Barr also bemoaned the fact that her two daughters are “libtards” who will never forgive her the fame she subjected them to for years. “My daughters are all libtards, but thank god I have two sons that are patriots of this country,” she said.
During the appearance, Barr discussed a number of conspiracies, including mind control and the idea that inbreeding has caused a distinct genetic offshoot from humans with their own DNA.
“I believe that something affects you after thousands of years of inbreeding,” Barr said, referencing the pharoahs. “... That DNA thing is different from other humans, except the Jews, which also inbreed. No, I'm kidding. And so do people in Kentucky. That was my joke. But no, the pharaohs, and that line, they’re really super inbred with their DNA.”
When Maher said that she has “more balls than anybody,” Barr declared, “That’s because I’m a trans man, and people don’t know that.”
Maher replied, “No you’re not—you’re not a man. You were never a man.” After some barely coherent discussion, the conversation moved on once more.
Barr’s press appearances have become increasingly bombastic in the wake of her dismissal from ABC in 2018. Earlier this year, she lashed out at ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel—who urged the public to show her compassion after her firing, even though he deemed her tweet “indefensible.”
As Kimmel put it back then, “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. The Roseanne I know could probably use some compassion and help right now.”
That same year, Barr’s longtime friend Judd Apatow shared a similar message during an interview with Vanity Fair.
“I haven’t spoken to her recently to know where her head’s at generally,” Apatow said at the time, “but I see it more as someone who’s crying out for help than someone who’s a hateful person. She always had a lot of energy and was very angry and early on really fought for women, that’s how she started.”
Apatow added later, “I hope she’s O.K. and I feel bad for people who got hurt in that. Everyone who worked with her, it’s tragic.”
