Roseanne Barr has been blasted for a bizarre “comedy skit” in which she falsely accuses Joe Biden of raping her in an unfunny attempt at mocking Donald Trump accuser E Jean Carroll.
In the cringe-worthy spoof, filmed in the shoe department of New York’s Bergdorf Goodman department store, Barr, 71, gasps at the camera and feigns having a flashback to an experience of sexual assault.
Apparantly filmed by her son, the Trump-supporting comedian is asked if she is OK, and replies: “No, I’m not OK because I just had a horrible flashback, a horrible memory.
“Right now I realised that 26 years ago, Joe Biden raped me in that dressing room in that shoe department where I changed my shoes. He raped me. Joe Biden raped me right here in the shoe department at Bergdorf Goodman.”
Barr later explicitly stated she was referring to Carroll, the author who alleged in a 2019 New York Magazine article that Trump raped her inside the dressing room of the same Fifth Avenue department store in early 1996.
Following a highly publicised defamation lawsuit, a New York jury in January ordered former Trump to pay a total of $83.3 million to Carroll for ruining her credibility as an advice columnist when he accused her of lying over the assault.
The Roseanne actor, who has publicly expressed her support for Trump in previous interviews, was blasted on social media for “making light” of sexual assault in the 40-second-long video.
“This isn’t even comedy. Why would you post this? Make light of any woman being raped or assaulted by a man?,” wrote one viewer, to which Barr replied: “I would never make fun of someone who was raped.”
Another person wrote: “Sexual assault is not a comedy skit,” to which Barr responded: “I would never insult a sexual assault victim. I was talking about E Jean Carroll.”
When Carroll made the allegations in 2019, she could not sue Trump over the alleged assault, as it would have taken place outside of the civil statute of limitations.
Trump denied the allegations, saying she was “totally lying”. He also insisted that Carroll is “not my type”.
Trump’s denials of Carroll’s allegations, which included him saying that she was a political operative, later became the subject of her 2019 defamation lawsuit suit against the former US president. In November 2022, she sued him again.
In May 2023, the former president was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and was ordered to pay Carroll over $83m in damages. He continues to fight the allegations and has since posted bond to appeal the verdicts.
Carroll said she would spend the amount on “something Trump hates”.
