Roseanne Barr, in strange tirade, says ‘nobody died in the Holocaust’ but ‘they should have’
Barr, who is Jewish, spouted antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories on a recent podcast. Her son says she was being sarcastic.
Barr claimed that Jews “cause all the problems in the world” in a recent podcast interview. Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
By Rebecca Salzhauer June 27, 2023
Roseanne Barr, the controversial Jewish comedian and former star of the working-class family sitcom Roseanne, appeared to deny the Holocaust and espouse other conspiracy theories on a recent episode of the podcast “This Past Weekend” hosted by comedian Theo Von.
The two-and-a-half hour interview, which aired on June 14, went viral Tuesday after a clip of Barr’s bizarre rant was posted to social media.
After suggesting that social media platforms manipulate the truth by banning select accounts, Barr said: “Nobody died in the Holocaust, either. That’s the truth.” She continued: “It should happen — 6 million Jews should die right now because they cause all the problems in the world, but it never happened.”
Von, who had been nodding along, said “You’re part Jewish, right?”
“I’m all Jewish. 100%,” Barr, whose grandmother lost her family in the Holocaust, responded.
After the clip took off on social media, Barr’s son rushed to her defense, saying his mom was being “sarcastic.” Others thought she was mocking those who deny the Holocaust, and perhaps also those who espouse stereotypes about Jews including that they control Hollywood. She is, after all, a comedian — and one known for pushing all boundaries.
But Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote on Twitter that argument made for a difference without a distinction: “Sarcasm or not, Roseanne Barr’s comments about Jews and the Holocaust are reprehensible and irresponsible. This isn’t funny.”
In other parts of the podcast, Barr touched on other conspiracy theories, including the false notion that the 2020 election was rigged. At one point, in response to prompting by Von, she said that Jews started Hollywood and have since run it like “an organized crime network.”
“Was it weird when Hollywood went against you because you’re Jewish?” Von asked.
“Well, Hollywood Jews don’t like Jews, let’s be real,” Barr responded, “I’m a Jew and I got fired from Jewish Hollywood.”
In 2018, Barr was fired from the reboot of Roseanne — since renamed The Conners — over racist comments she had posted on social media. When ABC executives announced that the show would continue without her, Barr claimed that she was ousted due to antisemitism.
“I’m not the right kind of Jew,” Barr said on the podcast, showing off the ring she was wearing adorned with the evil eye. “I’m a Jew-y Jew. I’m the scary kind.”
As the initial clip and then the full video of Barr’s interview rocketed around Twitter social media on Tuesday afternoon, it became something of a political Rorschach test, with those affiliated with the political right viewing Barr’s comments as a sarcastic reproach to social media censorship, and those more on the left viewing them as spreading dangerous conspiracy theories.
“She’s talking about the dangers of censorship and specifically used this example as what could happen if you let, say, YouTube decide what is true and what isn’t,” conservative commentator Seth Mandel wrote on Twitter. Ed Krassenstein, a writer who rose to prominence on Twitter as a critic of former President Donald Trump, wrote “I don’t care if it was a joke. I don’t care if it was sarcasm. I don’t care if Roseanne is Jewish. I don’t care if Roseanne were to be God. Joking about Jewish people dying in the Holocaust and sarcastically saying that Jewish people should die, is NOT OK.”
Barr was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, where her family tried to conceal their Jewish identity and were active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, despite observing Jewish customs at home. In her 1989 memoir, My Life as a Woman, Barr wrote that being the only Jewish girl in school growing up left her feeling paranoid.
Throughout her career, Barr’s relationship to Jewish identity has fluctuated. In 2008, she was criticized for calling Israel a “Nazi state” due to its treatment of Palestinians. She’s since become a pro-Israel advocate and was invited to speak out against the boycott, divest and sanctions movement at the Knesset in 2018. In 2016, Barr declared herself a Hebrew priestess and launched a “Women’s Temple for transformation and tikkun olam” in Hawaii. Perhaps most controversially, Barr dressed up as Hitler baking burnt gingerbread cookies for a 2009 photoshoot for the now-defunct Jewish magazine Heeb.
And despite the antisemitic conspiracy theories she shared in her conversation with Von, Barr said one nice thing about Jewish people’s contributions to American culture: “If Jews were not controlling Hollywood, all you’d have is fucking fishing shows.”
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This story has been updated to reflect ongoing developments.
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