Roseanne Barr faces backlash over controversial 'sarcastic' Holocaust denial

Roseanne Barr claims her holocaust denial comments were sarcastic.
Roseanne Barr claims her holocaust denial comments were sarcastic. Photo credit: Getty Images

Roseanne Barr has come under fire for making controversial comments about the Holocaust.

While appearing on Theo Von's podcast This Past Weekend, the comedian ranted about the US 2020 presidential election and the state of "truth" in America.

"Nobody died in the Holocaust either. That's the truth. It should happen," Roseanne said.

"Six million Jews should die right now 'cause they cause all the problems in the world. But it never happened. But it never happened - mandated."

After the clip went on viral on social media and users accused Roseanne, 70, of being antisemitic and a Holocaust denier, the podcast host insisted the comment was sarcastic and taken out of context.

"This Roseanne Barr clip was sarcasm folks. A clip taken out of a long sarcastic rant she had during our chat. Can we not recognize sarcasm anymore?" he wrote.

In addition, Roseanne's son Jake Pentland told TMZ, "We are embarrassed that people are stupid enough not to recognize Roseanne is being sarcastic."

He added, "We think it's funny that people are so stupid. Let's stop doing this clickbait shit, we need to focus on big problems in America. Focusing on out-of-context clips is what morons do."

However, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, did not accept the explanation and tweeted, "Sarcasm or not, Roseanne Barr's comments about Jews and the Holocaust are reprehensible and irresponsible. This isn't funny. And shame on Theo Von for letting it go unchallenged and instead diving into conspiracy theories about Jews and Hollywood."

Roseanne, who is Jewish, fell from grace and had her TV show cancelled in 2018 after she made racist comments on Twitter.