Jerry Seinfeld Doesn’t Think Roseanne Barr Should Have Been Fired

Most people would probably agree that ABC was right to fire Roseanne Barr after her recent racist Twitter scandal. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld isn’t most people.

During a press event for Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Entertainment Tonight asked Seinfeld what he thought about the controversy around Roseanne. In late March, show creator and star Roseanne Barr tweeted about Valerie Jarrett, one of Barack Obama’s former advisers, writing “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” ABC was quick to respond. Hours after the first tweet, the network cancelled its biggest show.

“I didn’t see why it was necessary to fire her. Why would you murder someone who’s committing suicide? Yeah that had to be,” Seinfeld said.

Because the comedian didn’t explain exactly why he thinks Barr’s firing was unnecessary, it’s difficult to know what he means here. Maybe Seinfeld is assuming that Barr would have stepped down on her own after seeing the backlash to her tweet (probably not). Maybe he thinks that public outrage would have painstakingly forced ABC to replace the comedian but save Roseanne the show (perhaps). Maybe he thinks this incredibly racist tweet was a one time thing (it’s not). Seeing how Barr has a long history of tweeting racist things and conspiracy theories, it doesn’t seem as though Barr was “committing suicide” so much tweeting in the same way she always has. The only difference was that the comedian faced repercussions this time.

ET spoke to the 64-year-old comedian on Monday about a new season of his show,Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, coming to Netflix, and also got his candid thoughts on the controversy surrounding Barr’s remarks.

“I didn’t see why it was necessary to fire her,” Seinfeld said. “Why would you murder someone who’s committing suicide?”

“But I never saw someone ruin their entire career with one button push,” he added. “That was fresh.”

Seinfeld also said he thought another female comedian should get a chance to play Barr’s part.

“I think they should get another Roseanne,” he advised. “They brought Dan Conner back, he was dead and they brought him back. So, why can’t we get another Roseanne? There’s other funny women that could do that part. You need to get the comic in there. I hate to see a comic lose a job.”

(Excerpts) Read More at: Decider.com and ETOnline.com