EYEROLL ALERT: Roseanne Blames Ambien for Her Racism

UPDATE: Ambien responds.

The makers of Ambien have responded to Roseanne's tweet: “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.” https://t.co/rTgodcmPc1 pic.twitter.com/6kaxDxi2tr

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) May 30, 2018

Following the cancellation of her eponymous show by ABC, Roseanne Barr took to twitter — the very platform that got her in trouble to begin with — to explain that her racist comments (and they were) about former Obama administration official Valerie Jarrett came out of her huge, unfiltered mouth because she was taking the sleeping pill Ambien and it made her write those crazy things at 2 am.

Roseanne just threw the “I was high and can’t be held responsible for my actions” card.

In a reply to one of her fans, she said “I honestly thought she was Jewish and Persian-ignorant of me for sure, but…i did.”

She also said she had been on Ambien, a medication used to treat insomnia, at the time.

She tweeted, “guys I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me. It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting — it was memorial day too — i went 2 far & do not want it defended — it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but…don’t defend it please.”

She cited Ambien again in a later tweet, saying, “Not giving excuses for what I did(tweeted) but I’ve done weird stuff while on ambien — cracked eggs on the wall at 2am etc.”

Oddly, she later deleted all of her references to the medication. Nevertheless, Ambien became the #1 trending topic on Twitter on Wednesday morning. Barr’s explanation was deemed laughable.

Now, in fairness, some behaviors and circumstances lend themselves to debate, and sometimes it’s easy to make allowances for them. They’re not usually hard to spot because generally intelligent debate will rage — particularly on social media — if allowances are suggested for the behavior.

Popping a sleeping pill and then spouting off hateful nonsense on Twitter is not one of those behaviors or circumstances. Literally no one is making a reasoned argument about why using a known racial slur to describe someone of color is ok if you’re high.

But, ever the social engineer, Roseanne has tapped into something that’s about to be at the forefront of debate (and I’d wager she was calculated in that effort the minute her huge, unfiltered mouth got her in trouble): the debate over drugs and the effects they have on otherwise rational people. That’s coming. New head of the National Rifle Association Oliver North recently brought it up as something we should consider in relation to school shootings.

So Roseanne, in pretty disgusting fashion, is co-opting what is about to be a serious debate in this country. Making her even less admirable, if that’s possible.

Oddly, though, the Ambien excuse is one that Roseanne didn’t need to come up with on her own. Some of her liberal cohort in the media — and if you thought she didn’t lean their way you were sorely mistaken — has provided her with the excuse over and over and over again. Below you’ll find a nice supercut of the Ambien love affair on Morning Joe (and even a few nods as to how it makes you tweet stupid things).

Go ahead and have a laugh. But remember: drugs only reduce the inhibition to display what you already are on the inside. Roseanne was right when she tweeted that she shouldn’t be defended. She shouldn’t.