October 12, 2018

"We were at home in Salt Lake City in when I tweeted — at 2:11 a.m. — I just woke up and had this thought in my head: Oh, my God, this is going to make so much sense."

"And then I tweeted it and then I went right back to sleep. And when I woke up at 7, the shit had hit the fan."



It was one of those things, she says, where you "just want to get it down," and you'll "expand on this later."

Why would anyone think your iPad Twitter app should be your bedside notepad? It's an especially bad choice if you go to sleep on a mind-altering drug. Roseanne says she used Ambien. Drug or no drug, it's possible to jot down a note in the middle of the night that even you can't understand the next morning or that you understand but realize in your wide-awake clarity is a bad idea or an idea you don't want to use in your public presentation of yourself. That's why a paper note pad is a classic bedside table item.

But Roseanne's public presentation was someone who would blurt out things that could sound crazy, and that is something that works on Twitter. You score with retweets. Was the 2 a.m. thought, "Oh, my God, this is going to make so much sense" or was it something more like: "This is so weird, I'll make them go nuts trying to figure out what this means"?

ADDED: You can listen to the entire 2+ hour long podcast here. And let me give you another clip, in which Roseanne expresses her sadness and anger that the network would take an artist's work away from her. The show represented 30 years of her work, drawn from her life and the Conner family is her real-life family. She had legal rights in the show, but she signed them away, she said because she'd have been a "hypocrite" to have cared about "labor rights" for so long and then, by not signing off, be responsible for 200 people losing their job.

52 comments:

Ralph L said...

She should have stuck with "I didn't know Va Jar Jar is black."

Birkel said...

The Conners will crash and burn but be kept an extra season so the execs have some protection. Roseanne will make a comeback somewhere.

Roseanne will generally be a bit nutty. That is her default setting. And Ambien certainly would never help that state of affairs.

We all need to put our devices out of arm's reach at night.

Ann Althouse said...

In the beginning of the episode, she describes getting a head injury when she was 15 that changed her personality. She connects her experience to that of the NFL players with brain damage. She'd been a high school nerd, into geometry, but then a car hit her and she lost touch with reality.

Sydney said...

Traumatic brain injury. I could definitely see that making her a little weird. But she has a tenuous relationship with the truth, so I would need to verify the story before I believed it.

rhhardin said...

It wasn't a problem in the first place. It's the mob that's lost track of reality.

Curious George said...

"Birkel said...
We all need to put our devices out of arm's reach at night."

And connect them to a breathalyzer ;-)

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Sydney said...

...I would need to verify the story before I believed it.

#BelieveAllWomen

stevew said...

There you go, insisting on a nuanced evaluation of the circumstances. Our attention span can only support knee-jerk reactions. Sheesh.

-sw

chickelit said...

Why all the sustained scrutiny of Roseanne? She was responsible for the tweet. People mistweet everyday. Why no intense personal scrutiny of Channing Dungy’s decision? Why protect her and her name?

Wince said...

Curious George said...
Birkel said...
"We all need to put our devices out of arm's reach at night."

And connect them to a breathalyzer ;-)


An app already presaged in the movie The Internship.

iowan2 said...

The talking heads have attacked a Black man that spoke yesterday, He is the house negro, cant read, is crazy, stupid, ignorant, AND he is a racist. I haven't heard that any of them have lost their jobs, for attacking a man for the color of his skin.(a White man would have never gotten the same response)

We are all inured to the constant double standard.

Bob Boyd said...

It wasn't the tweet that was unforgivable.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

I think I recall hearing her talk about the head injury before, at least once or twice. I could try and find it but I'm supposed to be working...

stevew said...

Not to mention that said Black Man has revealed his ridiculously simple phone password, "00000".

-sw

rhhardin said...

A friend had six blanks as his password, making it obvious to everybody in the room, that key sounding different from all the others.

Etienne said...

I used to write letters to the editor back in the 80's when the newspaper was still a viable media. Now you know how that works, the letters get put into a pile and the editors sift through them. In the end maybe four out of the pile get printed in the paper.

Here's the deal though, your name is going to be on it. The whole town is going to see it, including your employer and your customers. So there is that, i.e., being concerned that you are crafting something that is intelligent.

None of that happens with social media. There are no professionals to throttle you.

Don't do it. Go do something productive. You are not going to be famous.

bagoh20 said...

What a bunch of hyperbolic bullshit this whole episode is. If we can't handle someone saying such a bland, meaningless, powerless, minor insult, then we are not free adults who can share a culture with humor, compassion, emotion and depth. What is left is a burdensome, stifling shame fest of dismal platitude. If you ranked the worse statements by public figures over the year, this wouldn't make the first page. The racist comments by leftist media toward Kanye West in the last 24 hours would fill that up.

bagoh20 said...

It wasn't Kanye who had all his emails hacked including national secrets because he was stupid.

AP said...

My biggest issue is that you have to be racist to assume the tweet was racist.

Fernandinande said...

He is the house negro, cant read, is crazy, stupid, ignorant, AND he is a racist.

It's hard to buy good help in this Era of Trump.

rhhardin said...

I used to write letters to the editor back in the 80's when the newspaper was still a viable media. Now you know how that works, the letters get put into a pile and the editors sift through them. In the end maybe four out of the pile get printed in the paper.

I made the WSJ a half dozen times. The trick is be slightly amusing and hit the column-inch sweet spot (short). There's often a column inch problem to be filled with something.

Etienne said...

She was making millions, and this made her think she was important. It gave her a sense of entitlement. That she could say anything she wanted.

Unless you are at the top of the food chain, the best plan is to try and keep a low profile while getting rich.

When you get filthy rich (more money than the actuary table requires) then do whatever you want. No one else gets hurt.

Fernandinande said...

I made the WSJ a half dozen times.

".. ....... -- .- -.. . ....... - .... . ....... .-- ... .--- ....... .- ....... .... .- .-.. ..-. ....... -.. --- --.. . -. ....... - .. -- . ... "

Kate said...

People aren't even allowed to be eccentric anymore.

Kevin said...

Future Cingressional testimony:

“There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other leftists have committed in that I took part in shouting at Republicans in restaurants. I conducted harassment and interdiction tweets. I used unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of reputations. All of this is contrary to the laws of civil society, all of this is contrary to the US law and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by members of the Democrat Party from the top down. And I believe that the people who designed these, the people who designed the free fire zone, the people who ordered us, the people who signed off the strike targets, I think these people, by the disdain of letter of the law, the same disdain that tried Roseanne Barr in the court of Hollywood opinion, are war criminals.”

Known Unknown said...

Listened to a lot of this, and the best part is that Roseanne is still actually funny. She's also completely nuts.

Nonapod said...

I figure there's about a 99% chance that Joe will have Luis C.K. on within the next 6 months.

Etienne said...

That show was just like Hee Haw. All the people in it were so homely looking.

Mike Sylwester said...

It's too bad that Valerie Jarrett has not forgiven Roseann Barr.

Bay Area Guy said...

One bad tweet and you're deemed a non-person.

It musta been a really, really, really bad tweet.

The Crack Emcee said...

That anyone thought we'd want to see Darlene and the skinny John Goodman that bad is remarkable.

daskol said...

In the beginning of the episode, she describes getting a head injury when she was 15 that changed her personality. She connects her experience to that of the NFL players with brain damage. She'd been a high school nerd, into geometry, but then a car hit her and she lost touch with reality.

Would have been interesting and provocative for Roseanne to play the "head injury" card when this shitstorm transpired. She could have called out non-head injury privilege.

Chuck said...

No sympathy for celebrities who say stupid shit on Twitter. None. Zip, zero, nada.

Only contempt. It should happen more often; forceful, meaningful blowback against celebrities who say stupid shit on Twitter.

Ron Nelson said...

Roseanne is doing this right -- which is a sign of how genuine she is versus the corporate drones at ABC. By signing away her rights she did the right thing by her team. By insisting that she do so ABC insureds that her team will be unemployed sooner rather than later. If she had not signed, their fate would have been on her. By signing, the failure is on ABC.

WK said...

We saw Joe Rogan stand up show in Columbus last month. We were a row behind the person doing the closed captioning transcription for a hearing impaired audience member. It was hilarious to watch some of the things she had to type in followed by (audience laughter) to describe the reaction. Not sure how it is not a hostile environment for the person doing the transcribing.

Mark Nielsen said...


I had no idea Roseanne lived in Salt Lake City. Doesn't seem like her kind of town.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

rhhardin said...

The trick is be slightly amusing and hit the column-inch sweet spot (short).

I guess that was my problem. My column was too many inches.

As they say, Unlucky in letters-to-the-editor, lucky in love.

daskol said...

It's where she's from originally.

Known Unknown said...

"Only contempt. It should happen more often; forceful, meaningful blowback against celebrities who say stupid shit on Twitter."

You know damn well it only goes one way, Chuck. Twitter is a hive mind.

Thorley Winston said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mark Nielsen said...


Yes, SLC is a beautiful and livable town -- I'm from there originally. Just seems at odds with Roseanne's persona.

Thorley Winston said...

Roseanne is doing this right -- which is a sign of how genuine she is versus the corporate drones at ABC. By signing away her rights she did the right thing by her team. By insisting that she do so ABC insureds that her team will be unemployed sooner rather than later. If she had not signed, their fate would have been on her. By signing, the failure is on ABC.

I don’t defend or excuse what Roseanne Barr wrote and I don’t consider her to be “on my side” even though we both once voted for the same guy for President. That being said, I have to respect her generosity in giving up what had to be some very lucrative rights to a television show which would probably continue to be an enormous success if ABC hadn’t decided to fire her. As bad as her comments and previous antics have made her look, I think ABC looks worse for trying to continue what was her show and screw her out of the money that they otherwise would have had to pay her.

Thorley Winston said...

Yes, SLC is a beautiful and livable town -- I'm from there originally. Just seems at odds with Roseanne's persona.

There was a former adult film star (Asia Carrera) who moved to Utah several years ago and who was an outspoken atheist with a history of alcohol problems. She said that she loved living there because even though she wasn’t a social conservative, she saw how living in a community where they were so numerous lead to less crime and poverty and generally a better place for her to raise her own kids.

Etienne said...

Bottom line: No one knew who the hell Valerie Jarrett was then, or even now.

Bill Peschel said...

It's a shame she felt like she had to sign away her rights. True, the crew would have lost their jobs. So what? They work in Los Angeles. Series fail all the time. They would have found another job anyway.

WK: Similar thing happened with the Joe Rogan / interpreter story. Kevin Smith did one of his Q&As and they provided an interpreter (female, too), and he had great fun the first 15 minutes asking for the ASL equivalent of obscene phrases.

Can't imagine it was a #metoo moment, since she had to have learned those expressions already.

Thornley: I would imagine a number of men in SLC already knew Asia Carrera through her videos. I remember being at a party back in the late 80s where a number of men, some of them my friends, some I didn't know, gathered on the balcony with their brews. For some reason, someone mentioned an adult film actress. Like a switch being flipped, every man brought up their favorites. (I know, naive of me, but still ...)

southcentralpa said...

I still don't see the problem with the tweet. The original Planet of the Apes featured people in ape suits. VJ does bear a passing resemblance to the vet in the movie and has probably done more to advance the cause of the muslim brotherhood than almost any other American you could name.

Super funny? Nope. Ill-advised? Probably. Firing-worthy? Not seeing it.

jg said...

ABC made the bigger mistake.

n.n said...

She may be a neighbor. I did not know.

Salt Lake City is a prototypical metropolis. Even so, Mormons are unusually libertarian or principled in their treatment of people outside their community. Diversity in number (i.e. individual), first, and color, second.

The Crack Emcee said...

n.n said...

"Salt Lake City is a prototypical metropolis. Even so, Mormons are unusually libertarian or principled in their treatment of people outside their community. Diversity in number (i.e. individual), first, and color, second."

Just once, I wish you guys would stop lying for the Mormons: I got dissed one night by a Mormon bus driver for catching it after 9PM. How that fits in with this open-minded attitude liars tell about them is beyond me.

Explain the steady stream of sex abuse stories if they're so great. At what point is anyone going to demand it stop?

Never - because they smile a lot - as all cultists do....





n.n said...

The Crack Emcee:

Your evidence is anecdotal. Not only is there no common principle to support your allegation(s), but observable, reproducible outcomes are evidence that Mormons are basically good, and perhaps better, and there is no credible cause for a color judgment. Look outside the box.

Big Mike said...

If you’re not on Twitter, you can’t put out a career-ending tweet,

Gordon Scott said...

Asia Carrera sans porn makeup is unrecognizable. Her voice is distinctive, however.