US comedy great Jerry Seinfeld has weighed in on the Roseanne Barr saga, suggesting there was no reason for her to be fired from her her eponymous sitcom as there’s “no need to murder someone that’s committing suicide”.
Seinfeld told USA Today that he believed Barr’s career was long over and her very public axing was an overreaction.
“I don’t even know why they had to do that,” Seinfeld said. “It seemed like, you don’t need to murder someone that’s committing suicide. I thought the firing was overkill. She’s already dead.”
Barr, of course, was universally condemned after she described Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, as if “the Muslim brotherhood and the Planet Of The Apes had a baby“.
Following the outrage, the ABC immediately pulled the sitcom and promptly sacked Barr.
Later, Seinfeld told Entertainment Tonight: “I never saw someone ruin their entire career with one button push. That was fresh.”
As reported on B&T yesterday, a Roseanne-free version of the sitcom will now air, set to be called The Connors.
Admitting he’d never actually watched Roseanne, Seinfeld added that rather than kill Roseanne’s character off, perhaps it would’ve been easier to enlist a new actor to play the role.
“They brought Dan Conner back. He was dead, and they brought him back. So why can’t we get another Roseanne?” Seinfeld said. “There’s other funny women that could do that part. You need to get the comic in there. I hate to see a comic lose a job.”
