Tim Allen just doesn’t understand.
Speaking Thursday at the Television Critics Association’s press tour, the veteran actor basically asked those in attendance was simple question:
Can’t someone just be overtly racist in public without suffering consequences in this country?!?
Allen spoke on the topic of Roseanne Barr’s firing by ABC with journalists at the aforementioned gathering, with his remarks generating both headlines and many raised eyebrows.
(Barr, of course, was let go by the network and had her revived sitcom canceled after she referred to an African-American political advisor as an “ape.”)
“I go away back with Rosie and that’s not the Rosie I know,” Allen said, expounding about his friend and her situation as follows:
“She was the most diverse and tolerant woman I’ve ever known for a long time. Whatever got in her head, isn’t the Roseanne I know.”
Allen then expressed sympathy and shock for the ways of the world, especially when it comes to supposedly funny people who dare to utter controversial statements.
“It’s a very icy time. I’m a veteran comedian for 38 years and I’ve never seen it, like Lenny Bruce said at the Purple Onion, ‘We’ve gone backwards.’ There are things you can’t say. There are things you shouldn’t say.
“Who makes up these rules? And as a stand-up comic, it’s a dangerous position to be in because I like pushing buttons. It’s unfortunate.”
Who makes up these rules?
We can answer that ridiculous inquiry, Tim.
In Roseanne’s case, ABC executies made up the so-called “rules.”
Roseanne was an employee who was fired by her employer for actions the latter deemed inappropriate and/or actions it felt no longer made her a worthwhile employee.
It’s that simple.
People get fired from their jobs everday. Roseanne is just one of those people.
Allen is one of the few outspoken Republicans in Hollywood.
In May of 2017, he said he was “stunned” by the cancelation of the sitcom on which he starred, Last Man Standing, hinting strongly that he thinks it was yanked off the air due to his Conservative views.
(It has ran for six seasons at the time and ratings had been falling for years.)
Allen also once compared life in Hollywood for a Republican to life in Nazi Germany for Jewish people.
He’s back in the news now because FOX has actually brought back Last Man Standing, hoping it finds a similarly impressive audience to the one Roseanne enjoyed before the network axed that show’s comeback.
As for Barr?
She has oscillated between being regretful for her actions and blaming others for taking them out of context.
She recently swore to Sean Hannity that she is not racist and she has received support from non-Tim Allen celebrities as well.
“Roseanne Barr is my sister in comedy and she is my universal sister and what I won’t do… is throw her away for making a mistake,” Mo’Nique told KTLA last Friday, July 27, adding at the time:
“We’ve all said and done things, baby, that we wish we could take back… but when you’re in the public eye, you can’t.
Said Barr to Fox News the day before that:
“I’ve apologized a lot. It’s been two months. I’ve apologized and explained and asked for forgiveness.”
Oh, well, if it’s been two months… nevermind then!
All automatically gets forgiven after 60 days, right?
WATCH THE ROSEANNE BARR VIDEO ABOVE AND DECIDE:
IS SHE WORTHY OF FORGIVENESS?