A short time after Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “disgrace” to Jewish people, Jewish-American comedian Roseanne Barr added fuel to the fire on Monday, saying Zelensky isn’t a “good” Jewish person.
Barr, a controversial figure in the U.S. entertainment industry, also has made comments on the Holocaust more than a week ago, telling one of her colleagues in an interview that “nobody died in the Holocaust,” adding: “It should happen. Six million Jews should die right now because they cause all the problems in the world.”
According to U.S.-based news outlet The Daily Beast, Barr’s family later said in a statement that the comedian was being “sarcastic” to prove a point about limits in comedy in today’s society.
Talking on British tabloid host Piers Morgan’s show on Monday, Barr said she was tired of “bullshit” being spread in the media regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and seemed to justify Russian aggression against the country.
“I’m about to go crazy sitting here on the earphone hearing the stuff you all are saying about the Ukraine,” Barr said, adding that “I’m from Ukraine; there is a large faction of Nazis.”
“People better wake up and do some research on their own instead of buying what comes across on the screen and I try to shake them up, Piers,” Barr said. “You’re goddamn right I do. I try to shake them up and crack their mind-control programming. I do it for God!”
Piers, who disagreed with her opinions, said in response he didn’t believe Ukraine was a hiding spot for Nazi activity on the account of Zelensky’s Jewish heritage, to which Barr didn’t agree.
“I know, but he’s not a good one,” she said. “Are all Jews the same for God’s sake? Talk about antisemitic! Just cause the guy’s a Jew doesn’t mean he likes Jews or that he is doing anything good for the Jews!”
“Just because they’re skin folk, don’t mean they’re kin folk, you know what I mean?” she added. “Just because they’re the same color as you don’t mean they aren’t trying to lock your ass up. Wake up, people! Snap out of it!”
