Comedian back with a Fox Nation stand-up special

Roseanne Barr may have lost her lucrative job after making an ‘abhorrent and repugnant’ tweet likening a black woman to an ape… but she’s found a way to monetise the revulsion she caused.

The comedian is releasing a stand-up special next week, entitled Cancel This! – her first in more than 16 years.

It is to be released on the Fox Nation, the entertainment-based sister station to right-wing Fox News which also carries Tucker Carlson’s shows and Piers Morgan’s TalkTV programme.

In 2018, the ABC network dropped Barr from her self-titled comedy – renaming it from Roseanne to The Conners and killing off her central character – after she posted racist tweets saying former President Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett was an offspring of ‘the Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes’.

Network executive Channing Dungey said at the time: ‘Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.’

The comic was also dropped by her agent ICM Partners, which said said it was ‘distressed’ by her tweet.

Barr apologised, saying: ‘I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me - my joke was in bad taste.’

She also promoted lies about George Soros, who is frequently the target of antisemitic  conspiracy theories, She accused Chelsea Clinton of being married to a relative of the billionaire investor – and accused him  of being a Nazi responsible for sending Jews to concentration camps.

Now she is making use of her notoriety with the new special, which Fox is advertising by saying: ‘No topic is off-limits. Just try and cancel this!’

And in a teaser for the show, the comic is heard asking: ‘"Has anybody been fired recently?’

In the show, which was recorded in Texas, Barr will also talk about her Jewish and upbringing and raising her ‘privileged brood’.

It will stream in the US from February 13 and be accompanied by a documentary about her life and career, entitled Who Is Roseanne Barr?

Published: 3 Feb 2023