Jimmy Kimmel has said a few different things about Roseanne Barr over the years, mostly around the cancellation of her ABC reboot in 2018 and then again more recently as her name gets pulled back into debates about “double standards” and cancel culture.

The core thing Kimmel said about Roseanne Barr

When Roseanne Barr’s rebooted sitcom “Roseanne” was canceled by ABC in 2018 after her racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, Kimmel publicly called her tweet “indefensible” but also urged people to show compassion toward her.

He summed it up along the lines of:

  • Her tweet was wrong and indefensible.
  • She seemed “obviously not well.”
  • Instead of just attacking her, people should “take a breath” and remember that mental health issues are real and that she “could probably use some compassion and help right now.”

So his main public stance at that time was: what she said was unacceptable, but he still thought piling on her personally wasn’t helpful.

What he said (and didn’t say) about her firing

A widely shared quote later claimed Kimmel praised ABC’s decision to fire Barr, supposedly saying this was “about consequences” and that networks don’t have to pay people to say vile things. That quote has been debunked as fake.

What’s accurate from credible coverage:

  • Kimmel joked on his show about ABC canceling “Roseanne” after the tweet and did bits riffing on the network losing a big hit.
  • He did not deliver a straightforward speech celebrating her being taken off the air in the exact viral wording that circulated on social media.
  • Fact‑checkers note that while he called her comments “indefensible,” he also highlighted compassion instead of a pure “she deserved it” narrative.

In other words, he walked a line: condemning the tweet, lightly mocking the situation in monologue form, but publicly framing her as someone struggling who needed help.

Later context: Roseanne vs. Kimmel “double standard”

Years later, Roseanne Barr has repeatedly brought Kimmel up as an example of what she sees as a double standard at ABC and in the media.

Key points from her side:

  • She argues her entire career was “ruined” over the Valerie Jarrett tweet, while Kimmel, despite his own past controversies (like old blackface sketches on “The Man Show”), was suspended and later brought back to TV.
  • In interviews and posts, she has said things like: if Kimmel had defended her back then, he might not be facing his own problems now; and that she was “socially erased” while others get second chances.

From the Kimmel side, what consistently shows up on record is:

  • He labeled her tweet racist/indefensible.
  • He still framed her as someone who needed compassion and mental‑health understanding, not pure exile.

Mini recap (TL;DR)

  • Kimmel said Roseanne Barr’s tweet was “indefensible” and racist.
  • In the same breath, he said she was “obviously not well” and that people should show her compassion and remember mental health issues are real.
  • A viral quote claiming he strongly praised ABC for canceling her show in those exact words is misattributed ; fact‑checkers say he never said that.
  • Barr now cites Kimmel as proof of a “double standard,” arguing she was permanently ruined while he got a suspension and a return.

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