Roseanne Barr Slams POTUS Beheading Photo, Says She’d ‘Slap’ Anyone Who Upset Her 11-Year-Old Grandson
Roseanne Barr is not laughing about Kathy Griffin’s ill-fated photo shoot that mocked the 45th President of the United States.
While Griffin has issued a public apology for the stunt, admitting she went too far when she posted a photo that showed her holding the severed head of President Donald Trump, her mea culpa is falling on deaf ears by many of her peers in the comedy world.
One of Griffin’s most vocal detractors is Roseanne star, Roseanne Barr. Barr took to social media to post her own reaction to Griffin’s controversial viral photo, which she posted after a photo shoot with photographer Tyler Shields. The president’s 11-year-old son, Barron, reportedly saw the disturbing image while watching television with his mother and he initially believed it was real.
“Two of my grandsons [are] Barron Trump’s age,” Roseanne posted to Twitter. “I would slap the f**k out of any bi*tch or any pr*ck who upset them—trust me on that.”
In another tweet, Barr, who has made a career out of shocking others, admitted that she has done plenty of tasteless things in her day. But Roseanne says she draws the line at threatening “half the population or a sitting POTUS.”
While she never went so far as to a photo of a decapitated U.S. president, Roseanne Barr knows a thing or two about being slammed for disrespecting the country. Barr was at the height of her TV career on the ABC sitcom, Roseanne, when she screamed her way through a raunchy rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” during a 1990 San Diego Padres game. Barr ended her cringe-worthy, screechy performance of the nation’s song by grabbing her crotch and spitting. The Roseanne star left the field amid a chorus of angry boos from the audience.
At the time, Barr told People she had a hard time getting through the song once the booing started.
“I figured everybody knew I wasn’t the world’s greatest singer,” Roseanne said in 1990. “I thought it was going to be very well received. [When the booing started] I went into this panic thing, and I thought, ‘Can I get out of here? Can I quit?’ But I couldn’t. It took all the guts in my life to finish that song.”
From Christina Aguilera to Roseanne Barr: Watch 10 stars flub the National Anthem https://t.co/uWec2aSpJw pic.twitter.com/NYQmChc1FW
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 7, 2016
Barr said it was the Padres players who inspired the crotch-grabbing gesture after they egged her on in the dugout.
“A lot of [the players] said, ‘You ought to scratch yourself and spit, like all of us do.’ I thought it would be really funny.” Roseanne admitted. “I don’t choose the negative attention over and over, despite what people think. I sometimes get what I think is a good idea, but my judgment is wrong.”
Clearly, Roseanne thinks Kathy Griffin’s judgment was wrong.
In addition to Roseanne Barr, comedian Hal Sparks posted that he wasn’t looking forward to being asked about his fellow stand-up star.
“It was clearly not meant to be funny,” Sparks wrote of the photo.
While comedy stars Roseanne Barr and Hal Sparks are outraged by Kathy Griffin’s actions, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who worked with Griffin when she played Sally Weaver on two episodes of his ’90s sitcom Seinfeld, told Extra that he thinks the whole photo scandal is stupid.
“It’s stupid, who cares?” Seinfeld said when asked about the bloody beheading photo that his former co-star posted.
While Roseanne Barr denied being a Trump supporter last year, she later said America would be lucky to have him as a president. When the former Celebrity Apprentice host won the election last November, Roseanne tweeted that her prayers had been answered.
[Featured Image by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]
