Bill Maher Says 'Friend' Roseanne Barr Has Multiple Personalities and One 'Is Quite a Racist'
Bill Maher is the latest to voice his opinion on Roseanne Barr‘s Twitter scandal that led to the cancellation of her ABC sitcom Roseanne.
The Real Time with Bill Maher host addressed his “friend” on Friday night with a series of jokes touching on her, President Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian West.
“I was a tough week for the line,” Maher began. “You know the line? The one that comedians sometimes cross.”
“Half the country wants Roseanne to go away forever and half the country wants Samantha Bee to go away forever,” he continued.
“Now, Roseanne will always be my friend but her world came crashing down this week with a series of tweets she put out on Tuesday that were so full of racism, conspiracy theories and personal attacks they were described as abhorrent bordering on presidential.”
Maher also brought up Barr’s, 65, multiple personality disorder, which she revealed in 1994.
“My friend Roseanne admitted that she had been admitted to a mental institution,” Maher said on Friday’s show. “She has said she has multiple personalities and, unfortunately, one of them is quite a racist.”
He added, “It is not a mystery to me that a person with a mental illness could be taken in by a party that has lost its mind.”
Want to keep up on the latest from PEOPLE? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get our best stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
ABC canceled Roseanne earlier this week after she made a now-deleted tweet in which she compared Barack Obama’s former advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape.
Maher, 62, also touched on Trump’s meeting this week with Kardashian West saying of the event, “there’s a picture of it you can find online if you Google ‘When America Died.'”
“But if you think about it, it was probably a good meeting,” Maher continued. “They have a lot in common. They both come from reality TV, they both have their own brands and they both screwed a lot of black people.”
Earlier this week, Trump demanded an apology from ABC, tweeting, “Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that “ABC does not tolerate comments like those” made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?”
Maher joked about Trump’s demand, saying he didn’t receive an apology “because no one at ABC ever called you an ape, you’re thinking of me.”
Maher has previously compared the president to an orangutan, something Trump and Barr’s supporters have brought up in the wake of the actress’ racist comment.
The host addressed why what Barr did is very different to his comparison in a bit he dubbed “explaining jokes to idiots.”
He said, “one, Trump is an orangutan” and “two, white people have not been subjected to racist trope comparing them to apes for hundreds of years.”
RELATED VIDEO: Roseanne Barr Breaks Her Silence After Show’s Cancellation, Claims She Was ‘Ambien Tweeting’
On Thursday, Barr tweeted she had “begged” the network to not cancel the show, writing, “I begged them not to cancel the show. I told them I was willing to do anything & asked 4 help in making things right. I’d worked doing publicity4 them 4free for weeks, traveling, thru bronchitis. I begged4 ppls jobs.”
A source at ABC told PEOPLE on Friday the situation was “really unfortunate” as the revival was the network’s “biggest hit.”
“Everyone is upset for the cast and the crew, but there was always a feeling that something was going to happen,” the source said. “There was always a heightened awareness with her and we were always on edge about her going off track.”
The insider added, “But you just hold your breath until it does. Did we think she would say something like that? No. But then it all fell apart.”
