Seriously, what the fuck happened to Roseanne Barr?

[quote] At age 16, however, Barr was hit by a car, and the car's hood ornament impaled her skull; the incident left her with a traumatic brain injury. Her behavior changed so radically that she was institutionalized for eight months at Utah State Hospital.

Relapse?

She had better writers then

A combination of mental illness & being a horrible person. She lied about being sexually abused by her parents, someone capable of that is capable of anything.

She's severely mentally ill.

She got rich enough to surround herself with yes-men. Once you’re got a dozen people sucking on the teat, you’ve got enough people incentivized to encourage and support whatever hare-brained, flight of fancy you want to stumble down.

OP, people sometimes change their politics as time goes on--look at Frank Sinatra, Charlton Heston, Dennis Miller, and Bill Maher. All of them were once good outspoken liberals, and then they all became eventually seduced by the dark side.

With Roseanne it's worse, because, as r4 says, she's severely mentally ill, and she always was since even before she became famous. Because she once was on the clear side of the left, many gay men and lesbians forgave her her excesses and unstable behaviors; but now that her politics have changed, it's no longer possible to forgive her irrationality.

But it's also important to remember no one listens to her anymore. She's not made any positive contribution to the entertainment world since her sitcom ended more than two decades ago. She's completely irrelevant, even to the right wing. She's just a sad crazy lady with a lot of money and foolish opinions.

I don't think there is any coming back from the type of brain injury she had. Add in further age related deterioration and she is a lost cause. Menopause probably kick-started the most significant downward spiral.

Add in lead poisoning, which a lot of boomer have from being exposed to leaded gasoline. Childhood exposure can lead to faster mental decay in older age.

One thing I have noticed during my 50+ years alive is that every single person with a brain injury gets more unstable or just worse with age.

[quote]Charlton Heston

I had no idea he was once an outspoken liberal.

R9, I’ve wondered how much Michael Hutchence’s brain injury affected his decision-making during the last years of his life and if he would still be with us had the incident with the cab driver never happened.

And to think, back in the 90s, Tom Arnold was repeatedly reported to be the crazy one.

I have friend who knows her kids. Sad situation.

R12 Details?

I lost a friend who had a severe head injury as a young man. He lost his way mentally and become paranoid and delusional in his 50s. He lost his battle and ended up taking his own life. Incredibly sad and all because some drunk driver plowed into him one afternoon..

R6, Dennis Miller was more of a libertarian than a liberal. And I think Frank Sinatra’s political evolution had something to do with being burned by the Kennedys. Bill Maher always had more of an independent streak. And despite his Kid Rock-encouraged White House meeting, he’s still reliably a Trump critic.

Isn’t her youngest son encouraging her to do a lot of this? I feel for her older children and Bill Pentland.

[quote] She did entire episodes about standing up for and supporting gay people, black people, standing up for the working class, etc.

Doesn’t she still support these things? I would consider her more eccentric than crazy.

Her gut response is to say or do something shocking to piss people off. She's always been that way. But when she was out of the limelight it was like - what can I do or say to really get attention?

When people lose fame and the spotlight, it hurts their ego. "I was once the BIGGEST name in....X" - and they want to reclaim that after years of low-level attention.

For all its drawbacks, being a celebrity looks to be fun and you get a lot of privileges. Of course NOBODY will admit that.

I also think comedians are more susceptible to such shifts. They make a living out of poking sacred cows, and that supposedly what the MAGA right is doing. They seem more prone to turning against the status quo, and in the Obama years, being a kind and decent human became status quo.

R19 - that and she always had the non-urban Everywoman appeal about her. Not thin or beautiful - but a fat mom from working class roots. She shifted her ideas to what is popular in the working class the past 15 years.

30-40 years ago, the working class weren't the assholes we see today. That was decades of programming and also economic descent for working people.

Like it or not, the first season of the Connors was VERY real - adult children moving home to live with parents, Roseanne doing Uber to get by, the smart blonde daughter stuck in a depressing waitressing job.

R3 she lied about being molested as a baby but her siblings have not denied that when they were kids their dad used to pin them down and stick his tongue in their mouth.

That's pretty disgusting behavior if you ask me, though not on the level of molesting infants.

r5 - you've just described Elon Musk.

She turned me into an alky!

This video showed up on my YouTube feed a few days ago. There's a section where Roseanne lovingly discusses her father and the impact he had on her stand-up career. It was odd to hear her spoke so lovingly of him.

Sorry but I don't recall where in the video it's brought up. But check it out.

[quote] And despite his Kid Rock-encouraged White House meeting, he’s still reliably a Trump critic.

Too late, Bill. Not after you reported back from that fucking dinner with such ridiculous praise--that was absolutely the last straw.

Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. You're a pig.

Watching Roseanne reruns. Instead of making them win the lottery they should have had Roseanne become a successful children’s author. That would have been more authentic to the character with Roseanne succeeding at something she apparently loved doing but set aside to raise kids and waitress. The lottery plot was lazy writing.

LIFE.

LIFE happened to her.

Never heard that R21, but all of Roseanne’s siblings and her parents passed lie detector tests at the time the allegations were made. She made amends with her siblings and mother but her father refused to speak to her ever again. Her dad died some time ago but her mom is still alive.

R26 the lottery plot line was all her idea. The last 2 seasons went off the rails because Roseanne got more directly involved with the writing and by that time she was completely out of touch with her working class roots. The 1995-96 season of Roseanne was supposed to be the last which is why lecy goranson returned. Roseanne changed her mind and the godawful lottery season was born. John Goodman already had work lined up so he was only in a limited amount of episodes the last season.

I thought they killed John Goodman off, and he wasn't in the final season at all?