Roseanne Barr's Viral Interview Explodes Over 70M Views in Twitter Comeback with Help from Musk
Actress and comedian Roseanne Barr continues to trend on social media more than two weeks after her viral comments about the Holocaust sparked indignant headlines and drew widespread condemnation from liberal media outlets.
Twitter owner and former CEO Elon Musk jumped into the fray Sunday, and as a result, Barr not only was restored to the platform after yearslong banishment, but her controversial June 14 interview was reposted on his site.
Musk tweeted out his approval of Theo Von’s post containing the podcast with Barr, declaring, “Comedy is legal on this platform!”
WARNING: Von’s conversation with Barr contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
Comedy is legal on this platform! https://t.co/G1ZslWmxBK
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2023
Musk’s action was a sharp contrast to that of YouTube, which had deleted Von’s interview with Barr and had posted a notice saying the recording violated its “hate speech” policy.
Barr responded to Musk’s announcement Monday in her typical saucy style, thumbing her nose at critics and flaunting the Twitter post’s popularity for good measure.
“Damn it feels good to be a gangster,” she said. “Thank you @michaelmalice for getting me my twitter back! 62 million views isn’t bad for a multi-cancelled has been. Thanks @elonmusk for fact checking the mind controlled bots after me and for giving @TheoVon a platform. Comedy is back!”
Damn it feels good to be a gangster. Thank you @michaelmalice for getting me my twitter back! 62 million views isn’t bad for a multi-cancelled has been. Thanks @elonmusk for fact checking the mind controlled bots after me and for giving @TheoVon a platform. Comedy is back! https://t.co/qRFhyeBVQj
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) July 4, 2023
By Wednesday, the Theo Von podcast had more than 70 million views on Twitter.
My podcast with Roseanne was removed from another platform so i want it to be able to live somewhere.🙏 Amen! pic.twitter.com/IjL5JGg0gG
— Theo Von (@TheoVon) July 1, 2023
Liberal media outlets last week reported only a snippet of the original podcast conversation, an omission that served to make Barr — who confirmed in the interview that she is “100 percent Jewish” — sound like a dyed-in-the-wool antisemitic Holocaust denier.
Many who heard the comments in context, though, came away with a different perception.
Von was quick to rise to Barr’s defense, proclaiming Barr was “obviously using sarcasm and satire.”
He posted a clip of the conversation on his Twitter feed last week for viewers to judge for themselves.
Here is the full clip of Roseanne Barr obviously using sarcasm and satire. She is a mensch and one of the funniest people i’ve ever met. pic.twitter.com/p0K6pWEqr8
— Theo Von (@TheoVon) June 27, 2023
The discussion in the clip touched on the 2020 election, which Barr — a supporter of former President Donald Trump — at first appeared to emphatically insist “was not rigged,” with Joe Biden receiving a “mandate” from 81 million voters in only 36 counties.
Her punch line was a comment about censorship: “And don’t you dare say anything against it, or you’ll be off YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and all the other ones,” she deadpanned, adding, “And nobody died in the Holocaust, either. That’s the truth. It should happen — 6 million Jews should die right now, because they cause all the problems in the world. But it never happened.”
The sarcasm of the remark was similar to the line people use to indicate they’ve just told a whopper: “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.”
It’s not the first time Barr’s comments have landed her in hot water.
She was booted from her ABC sitcom “Roseanne” in 2018 after remarks about former Obama administration official Valerie Jarrett were condemned as racist.
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