Roseanne Barr showed the country what deplorable looks like yesterday. The comedian posted about former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett on her Twitter account and wrote: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj [sic].” Outrage ensued and her recently revamped ABC show was cancelled. Barr promptly took to the social media platform to offer an apology and an excuse: “Guys I did something unforgiveable [sic] so do not defend me,” Barr wrote in a post which has since been deleted, “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 [sic].”
The comedian’s explanation, which made reference to the rare, reported phenomenon of behavior like driving, eating, or even shopping under the drug’s influence without a clear memory in what is commonly known as an “Ambien blackout,” was greeted with skepticism and anger by the Twittersphere. And today, Sanofi, the company that produces the prescription sleep aid medicine Ambien, offered a more official dismissal when they issued their own sharp-tongued response: “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.” In other words, propagating offensive stereotypes and discrimination with a bad case of word vomit is not a symptom written on the back of the box.
