Roseanne Barr

Responding to Barack Obama during the Jimmy Kimmel controversy, Barr publicly asked whether he remembered when he and Michelle Obama had supposedly called Disney chief Bob Iger to secure her dismissal in 2018.

Attribution

Directly implicated

During a lengthy podcast in which she mocked what she described as 'imposed truths', Barr sarcastically claimed that nobody had died in the Holocaust and then made an extreme antisemitic remark before adding that it had not happened. An excerpt circulated widely and provoked strong outrage.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Barr circulated Pizzagate/Pedogate material followed by QAnon-related claims, going so far as to credit Donald Trump with rescuing large numbers of children from sexual exploitation networks without providing verifiable sources.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

Barr replied 'NAZI SALUTE' to an image of Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg raising his fist at March for Our Lives, repeating a claim circulated in far-right circles.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

In a series of tweets, Barr claimed George Soros had been a Nazi who handed other Jews over to camps while stealing their possessions. This claim is historically false: Soros was a Jewish child hiding under an assumed identity during the occupation of Hungary.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Barr likened Valerie Jarrett, a former Black adviser to Barack Obama, to the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes. ABC called the remark 'abhorrent' and immediately cancelled Roseanne, then the network's highest-rated show; her professional representatives also distanced themselves.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Barr circulated messages promoting a theory that Seth Rich, a DNC employee murdered in Washington, had been killed as part of a Clinton-linked cover-up.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Barr posted a series of messages attacking Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin, notably describing Abedin as a hater of Jews and using an insult likening her to Nazis.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

At the height of the Trayvon Martin case, Barr retweeted George Zimmerman's parents' home address, deleted it, then threatened to repost it and visit the property herself. Zimmerman's parents sued, arguing that they no longer felt safe.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Accused

Barr posted a statement about Susan Rice, then Barack Obama's national security adviser, describing her as a man with 'ape balls', a simian comparison targeting a Black woman.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Barr responded to a discussion about toilets and transgender people with remarks excluding transgender women on anatomical grounds and was accused of transphobia.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

Following the death of Michael Blosil, Marie Osmond's son, Barr claimed that he was gay and that the Mormon Church's hostility towards homosexuality had driven him to suicide, rejecting depression as the explanation.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

For the satirical Jewish magazine Heeb, Barr posed dressed as Hitler with burnt biscuits described as 'Jew cookies' coming out of an oven, prompting accusations of trivialising the Holocaust.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Her sister Geraldine Barr sought approximately $70 million, citing an oral agreement allegedly entitling her to half of Roseanne's earnings. The dispute, nicknamed 'sistermony', formed part of their public family estrangement.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

In an initial divorce petition, Barr accused Tom Arnold of physical and psychological abuse. Arnold denied the allegations. Three days later, she withdrew the petition and accusations and apologised, then filed for divorce again several weeks later on grounds of irreconcilable differences.

Attribution

Spouse

ABC hesitated to broadcast a Roseanne episode in which the main character was kissed by a woman. Barr and the producers protested; the network eventually aired the episode without removing the kiss, accompanied by a parental advisory.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Barr publicly stated that both parents had sexually abused her during childhood, claiming that memories had emerged during therapy. The allegations caused a lasting family rupture.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Invited to sing the anthem before a Padres game, Barr gave a deliberately or genuinely discordant rendition, then grabbed her crotch and spat on the ground. The Padres apologised to the audience and President George H. W. Bush called the performance disgraceful.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

During a World Series game in Oakland, Barr exposed her backside to the crowd, revealing a tattoo dedicated to Tom Arnold. The incident entered the history of her public provocations and resurfaced during the national anthem controversy the following year.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated