I'm generally pretty laid back when it comes to differences of opinion, but there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed. Holocaust humor is one example of something that rubs me the wrong way. I just don't get it. How can the death of millions of Jews, gypsies and other people ever be funny? Maybe I'm alone in this, but I don't think so.
There is at least one publication that doesn't agree with me though. The Jewish humor magazine Heeb, which recently published an interview with Roseanne Barr featuring photos of her posing as a "Domestic Hitler Goddess" pulling "burnt Jew cookies" from the oven. Titled "That Oven Feelin'" I read the article this afternoon with increasing distaste. Is that possible after seeing the initial photo, you wonder? Yes, it is. I cringed when I read how the writer, Oliver Noble, greeted Roseanne with a "sieg heil," grimaced when I read how she nailed "the Fuehrer’s facial expressions with twisted glee" and I think I died a little inside when she donned a Swastika armband, then placed one of the "gingerbread victims" and a Polaroid of herself in Hitler costume into a Ziploc bag as a memento for her 13-year-old son.
I'm not alone in my reaction to this piece. As one commenter on Heeb's website put it, "I think to top it off, she should go to a synagogue, grab her crotch and spit on the Torah, then botch the opening canting lines to Bar Mitzvah rites." Another commenter called "Appalled" said, "This makes me sick to my stomach." But I should note that some commenters were not offended by the article, calling it "funny" and "amusing." One even went so far as to say "Bravo Roseanne!"
With photos like this in her repertoire it's hard to believe that Roseanne is Jewish, but she is. Born to a working class Jewish family in Salt Lake City, Utah, her childhood was influenced by both Jewish and Mormon values because her mother chose to take the children to church in order to hide their Jewish identity. Still, Roseanne's devoutly Orthodox Jewish grandmother took her to synagogue for Shabbat services, and on her grandfather's side Roseanne is descended from a long line of rabbis. I wonder how Roseanne's Jewish ancestors would feel about her Hitler photos.
And of course, Heeb is every bit as much to blame for publishing an article like this.
What are your thoughts? Is Roseanne's Hitler spoof offensive or funny? Should Heeb have published it?
Holocaust humor is never funny to me and I’m not even Jewish. To joke about such suffering I don’t understand. Just insensitive.
Burning Jews, or any group of people, is not funny but out right offensive.
Any kind of In-Law jokes are funny because the joke is describing a type of person common to all. I sure some In-Laws will take me to task for that statement. When one trys to erase a specific group of people for any reason, that is immoral. Not Funny. But, look at the source…
Dear Miss Barr:
your sense of humor does not exist in any form!
this was very tasteless.
sorry I need to speak my judgment to you.
some issues need to be judged by human beings to other human beings. this is one of them.
usually I do not make judgments of other people’s actions. I am making an exception in your case.
maybe, and only maybe, I may pray for you to change your thoughts about what you think is “comedy”.
I’m the kind of person who tries to find the “funny” in almost everything. It’s gotten me through 3 divorces and my daughter’s teenage years and several really bad job situations. This, however, is not funny in the least bit. Roseanne needs to go away and perhaps learn more about her Jewish background before making tasteless jokes/humor/whatever about the holocaust. Maybe then she wouldn’t find it as humorous as she seems to think and would know why the rest of us already don’t think it’s something to joke about.
That is just disgusting, and Roseanne you should be extremely ashamed of yourself. My whole family was wiped out in the holocaust, and the only reason I am here is because by some miracle my grandmother escaped with my then 2 year old father. I find your humor, if that is what it can be called, disgusting and cruel. I hope you can sleep at night.
Not funny at all!!!
Roseanne is truly a disturbed person to see humor in her burnt cookie routine.More disturbing is that she thinks that there is a sane audience for this type of humor.She is 10years past a career in TV and desperate.
You are a pathetic person and a miserable human being.
Total shame on you and your sick mind.
Sickening woman! Maybe you end up burnt in hell worst than a cookie. Unless you repent!
I am beyond appalled. I wouldn’t presume to know what pathology prompted Roseanne’s pathetic (and utterly disgusting) attempt at humor, but the woman must be suffering from some kind of mental or emotional challenge. I love satire and often use humor to diffuse difficult situations. But there’s nothing funny about the shoah, which took 200 of my family members. The only reason I’m alive is because my parents got away in time. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about those who didn’t make it. I can’t even verbalize how offensive this is. I will never watch Roseanne in anything ever again.
Not only did this article make me feel sick to my stomach, but it also angers me that the magazine would be so insensitive as to print it. How God’s heart must ache when people make fun of evil.
roseanne is a disgusting pig. I am revolted and sickened by her. and she is one of the madonnakabalah people too. roseanne should drop dead after being tortured slowly. a shonda doesn’t begin to describe how i feel.
Meeskite (sp) roseannebitch
After reading about Roseanne, My heart is sick and I will never laugh again at something this severely
disturbed person may say. In fact, I will never listen to this severely distrubed person.
I’m not Jewish but I can’t imagine how painful it must be to see someone joke and minimize about the death of so many people. Sometimes “celebrities” think they are exceptions. I’m confused as to why a Jewish magazine would legitimize her callousness. There are PLENTY of things to smile and joke about besides this!
Since everyone has been very critical of Roseanne so far, I feel the need to stick up for her. Of course, this whole “act” was bizarre. Naturally, I question the mentality of the staff of the magazine that published this piece. However, I am wondering if Roseanne thought that she was bringing enlightenment to some people regarding the Holocaust through the use of humor. Remember “Springtime for Hitler” in “The Producers”? Remember the 1942 movie “To Be Or Not To Be” in which Jack Benny playing the part of a stage actor portrayed Hitler as a buffoon in a satiric play about the Nazi’s? To be fair to Roseanne, there is a long history of using satire in connection with depictions of Hitler.
The holocaust is not at all funny and I am not Jewish either. Roseanne Jewish? She is not funny. She a loudmouth and nasty to.
I normally don’t comment because I’m pretty shy, but I have to say you are totally right and this trend is just not funny at all. Roseanne Barr has always been a woman of poor taste. I find it really horrible that anyone would think this kind of humor is cute or funny and I kind of think it’s aggressive.
“With photos like this in her repertoire it’s hard to believe that Roseanne is Jewish, but she is.”
Is she really? Are thousands upon thousands of jews that are more concerned with popularity, politics, making money, etc etc. are really jews?
I don`t think so. They`re simply people that happened to be born in the land of Israel, or of true Jewish descendants but the essence of Judaism is simply not there. That love AND respect for the Tora and G_d´s teachings is so far from them that that definetly IS funny. This is the humble opinion of a Colombian that can not be jewish, but that does try to love and respect the Tora.
Your humor is very appalling and you are a real disgrace. An orthodox jewish grandmother??? and a long line of rabbis in the family????? C’mon, you show no class nor mensch – li – keit at all. You should be ashamed of yourself.
First of all, Rosanne hasn’t been funny in 25 years.
He career has be in the toilet, where her humor has been for awhile.
She is trying to get attention unfortunate for her it is all negative.
I would never hide my roots when I was a school child, if someone wanted to pick on me because I’m Jewish, I would stand and fight, even if I lost, I would stand and fight.
Heeb, which was sometimes funny, mostly not, is a magazine I canceled long ago.
I feel like subscribing again so I can cancel once more.
Is very clear that she is looking for attention, after all she has no career and coming up with somthing so sad and offensive can put her in the front page of any magazine, brothers and sisters lets not give her the attention that she is looking for in this sad attempt to revive her dead career.
That Roseanne is a sick bitch, anyway. Never did like her humor and I never did thought she’s funny at all. And to think she’s Jewish!! Que lastima!
Have some fun people! I am jewish too, and the facts that “white jews” have over the years make fun of the Black people, and the arabs, should stop everyone from being a sulk!
How did something so horrifyingly insulting and hurtful ever get printed?
Shame on her!There is something wrong with someone who thinks this is funny. It’even worse that she’s a jew.
Larry King referred to Rosanne as “a sick individual.” If you are as heartsick over this humor as I am, she needs to feel it in her pocketbook. E-mail your local cable station and ask that they rethink their programming.
NO HEEB MAGAZINE SHOULD NOT HAVE PUBLISHED THIS, SHAME ON THEM, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT MAGAZINE???? EVERYONE KNOWS ROSEANNE BARR IS A SICK-O FROM LONG AGO!!!!
She is disgusting. Let her try to do this in another country, she would end up in prison
Self-deprecation can be funny – this stunt is horrifyingly insensitive. That any magazine, let alone a magazine specifically Jewish, would publish such trash is a tragic commentary on the erosion of moral values and sensitivity.
Roseanne was refreshing when she first emerged from nowehere but success went to her head and she became ovbnoxious. Obnoxious, I can take making a comedy skit out of such endurring tragedy I will not. Roseanne has become a thing of the past and should be. She tried to explain her misstep at the ballpark years ago and largely failed, there is no explaination for this and it can never be called a misstep. Let her live alone in her world because she has forgotten this one and all the things that have happened. She is a human disgrace period.
that their was something missing with Ms Barr. I
do not believe that she is Jewish, I know she says
she is, however the humanity is not there…she
indeed must be an alien, wearing such a heavy viel as to hide her tenicules.
This gives new meaning to the word “distasteful”. I am deeply saddened and gravely offended by such a horrific attempt. What one generation tolerates, the next accepts as normal. I’m sorry – I don’t think this will ever be tolerated. I think most of us understand why her comedy is no longer in demand.
I understand that Roseanne Barr needs to be outrageous to be funny, but this kind of humor isn’t funny at all. Both Barr and Heeb should be ashamed of themselves for this sickening photo session and apologize to everyone for a complete lack of taste and morals
to begin, what is this a Jewish magazine named Heeb?
Why not use “Abie”, or “Kike” or all the negative terms to disparage the Jewish people. This in itself is insane, and demonstrates that secular people who claim to be Jews are as bad for the Jewish people as the white aryans, or even the arabs. I would not read, let alone buy, such a publication. Roseanne Barr must be a neo – nazi posing as a Jew in order to deseminate rotten positions and Ideas. What else could explain actions such as this? Funny? —– it is low, obscene and despicable. Eliyahu Avraham
I think Roseanne Barr goes way too far with almost anything she does or says. This was inappropriate, uncalled for and a disgrace to our religion! How dare her say anything so horrible as this!!!!!
I never cared for her and have more reason to now!!!!!
Why all the fuss.
Everyone out there should already know that Roeanne
is not funny in any shape manner or form.
She is a disgrace to humanity.
She as shown her worst side on one or more occasions
in the past. I’m ashamed to call her a “fellow”
Jew
Some people and businesses will do anything for a buck no matter how tasteless!
My personal opinion on the article is irrelevant. Free speech should allow mockery of another’s beliefs. Isn’t complaining about this article similar to the riots in Pakistan over the “Mohammed” cartoons. At least this is a fellow Jew who is making the joke. Personally, I am offended since many of my relatives were murdered by the Nazis. My grandmother lost her parents and all her siblings.
Some things are better left unfunny.
I can’t imagine Roseanne Barr’s act to be seen as humorous by anyone. What point was Heeb trying to make by displaying Roseanne’s bizarre behavior? Anyone who reads the interview can see that she is mentally disturbed. Would Heeb give audience to any random crazy person, Jewish or otherwise, behaving so horrifically? Roseanne is sick, but Heeb has been irresponsible and needs to apologize–not only for the pain it has caused, but for exploiting a person suffering from mental illness for it’s own gain.
I am in agreement in asking how the article and photo were published in the first place.
Completely inappropriate, distasteful, and cruel.
The correct word is Roma not gypsies. Many Roma find the word gypsies to be offensive.
absolutly disgusting. i am mixed race woman and i hate it when black folk ridicule themselves and use the n word on themselves, but this is worse. the holocaust was one of the worst things that has happened on this planet and like slavery should never be mocked.
I find no humor in the senseless slaughter of any group of human beings. It does make some human sense however,to poke fun at the Nazi ass#@!$ who committed these crimes against man and God, but it serves no purpose to disregard the true evil behind the acts in question.
Roseanne is a twisted sister, period. She’s not a Jew- she’s an anti-Jew. To make a mockery out of such inhumanity is beyond sick. Frankly, I don’t know how she even has a career. I never thought she was funny in anything I’ve seen her do.
I tend to be very lenient when it comes to any sort of jokes, however, this one really did cross the line. The picture didn’t exactly bother me, because I immediately though ‘Hey, making fun of Hitler? Awesome.’ However, when it seems as though she idolizes Hitler (which I truly hope is just an act) it really is just going too far. There is a line that should never be crossed.
Sick puppy Roseanne out to make a fool of herself yet again.
This woman’s constant effort to offend others is humorless and tasteless. She gets worse with age, not better.
Never thought that she was funny.
I used to enjoy Roseanne, this isn’t funny.
Oh man, that Roseanne. Just when I thought the she had nothing left in her, she kicks out something as hilarious as this. Good going Roseanne, looking forward to a followup.
P.S. Ahahaha, that bit about the cookies… well played… well played…
she is a jew she can say what she wants.
silly jews thats was hella funny
let them cook lol
I personlally think it’s okay to joke about Hitler&the Nazis, but I must admit that Roseanne Barr has definitly gone too far. After all, that photo isn’t even funny.
There is no doubt in my mind, people that play around with things as serious as the genocide or slaughter of human beings, are not right in their minds. With this womans background of the Jewish lineage, she has more to pay for than just an innocent looking person trying to get a laugh. Holocaust survivors must be appalled at this indignation. It is beyond my comprehension how any fellow human being is capable of throwing an innocent child, an old person, any person, into a fiery furnance and feel like it is just my job. Satan had many people in his vice and many people are going to burn in the lake of fire for their atrocities. Thank Yahweh he is a forgiving Father and his son Yahshua died for our sins.
Guess that’s why she is a comedian and your not
PS she is half jewish so is it half funny ?
Not funny at all – but it seems this woman, who was never particularly funny to start with, believes there is no such thing as bad publicity.
Well I did Nazi that coming. I mean, those jokes are racist Anne Frankly they’re not funny anymore. Why do people think it’s Hitlerious to joke around like that? The holocaust is a serious thing and I shall be fuehrerious if this continues. Auschwitz all your racist jokes! (I’m so going to hell for this omg)