Roseanne Barr went on Twitter late Monday night to blast the support James Gunn has received after being dropped by Disney. The former ABC network star, who was fired from “Roseanne” in May, said she was “disgusted” by the double standard.
“I’m disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn’s pedophile jokes-as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn’t even understand,” she said.
I’m disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn’s pedophile jokes-as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn’t even understand.
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) July 24, 2018
Gunn was dropped from his role as director of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise after a right-wing campaign to unearth old tweets of his went viral. Many of the tweets — he deleted thousands — related to pedophilia. “I like when little boys touch me in my silly place,” read one. Gunn said that they were jokes.
Since then, Gunn’s industry colleagues, including “Guardians of the Galaxy” stars Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista, have expressed their support. An online petition to reinstate Gunn to his role as director of the franchise now has over 250,000 signatures.
The campaign was started by right-wing provocateur Mike Cernovich, who has a history of targeting liberal Hollywood and media personalities, and now leads a small army of Twitter users who have made it their mission to dig through old tweets to find inappropriate comments. Their sleuthing also led to USA Today dropping columnist Cheri Jacobus and forced “Rick and Morty” co-creator Dan Harmon to apologize for an old sketch that featured the simulated rape of a baby.
Roseanne’s case has increasingly been given a second look by conservatives who largely abandoned her after she tweeted that former Obama White House aide Valerie Jarrett was as if the “Muslim brotherhood & Planet of the apes had a baby.” Like Gunn, Roseanne has insisted that her comment was also a “joke” and also that she didn’t even realize Jarrett was African-American.
Barr was dropped from her hit show within hours after TheWrap first broke the story. While many in Hollywood have rallied around Gunn, Roseanne’s departure was largely met with cheers.