--- title: Roseanne Barr Blamed Her Racist Tweet on 'Ambien Tweeting' description: Comedian Roseanne Barr blamed the racist tweet that led to her show's cancellation on sleeping pills, saying she was "Ambien tweeting." canonical: https://time.com/5295104/roseanne-barr-ambien/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-30T12:02:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T19:37:51.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Roseanne Barr Blamed Her Racist Tweet on 'Ambien Tweeting' og:description: 'I've done weird stuff while on Ambien' og:url: https://time.com/5295104/roseanne-barr-ambien/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt278205fd025a2d67/698931c986f68e2d1c6e94d6/roseanne-barr.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Paley Center For Media Presents: An Evening With "Roseanne" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Roseanne Barr Blamed Her Racist Tweet on 'Ambien Tweeting' twitter:description: 'I've done weird stuff while on Ambien' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt278205fd025a2d67/698931c986f68e2d1c6e94d6/roseanne-barr.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Roseanne Barr Blamed Her Racist Tweet on 'Ambien Tweeting'  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:37 PM UTCPublished: May 30, 2018 12:02 PM UTC  Actress Roseanne Barr attends an event at The Paley Center for Media on March 26, 2018 in New York City. Actress Roseanne Barr attends an event at The Paley Center for Media on March 26, 2018 in New York City.Mike Coppola—WireImage  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:37 PM UTCPublished: May 30, 2018 12:02 PM UTC Comedian Roseanne Barr blamed sleeping pills for the [racist tweet that led to her show _Roseanne_‘s cancellation](http://time.com/5294313/roseanne-cancelled-abc/) — then deleted a tweet that included the claim. Barr posted a series of tweets regarding the controversy late Tuesday and early Wednesday. In one, she wrote that she had been “ambien tweeting” when she posted the offensive message, referring to the sleep aid. In a separate tweet, she added that she was, “Not giving excuses for what I did (tweeted) but I’ve done weird stuff while on ambien.” Both messages have since been deleted. > [](https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1001776470614855680) Sanofi, the maker of Ambien, pushed back on Barr’s claim with a tweet of its own. Though it did not name the actress specifically, the company wrote that, “Racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.” > [](https://twitter.com/sanofius/status/1001824999496404992) ABC canceled _Roseanne_ after Barr posted a tweet saying that if “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby,” it would be former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is black and was born in Iran. Barr, who has a [history of inflammatory comments](http://time.com/5294402/roseanne-cancelled-abc-racist-conspiracy-theory/), has apologized for the tweet — both to Jarrett and to [show staffers who lost their jobs](http://time.com/5294899/roseanne-barr-apologizes-writers-actors/) over it — but also tweeted that she was tired of “being attacked and belittled more than other comedians who have said worse,” [Reuters reports](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-television-roseanne/roseanne-barr-blames-sleep-aid-ambien-for-racist-tweet-idUSKCN1IV10L?utm%5Fcampaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm%5Fcontent=5b0e7adb04d3013c11d28bea&utm%5Fmedium=trueAnthem&utm%5Fsource=twitter). Barr also said she would leave Twitter, though she was still posting as of Wednesday morning. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5295104/roseanne-barr-ambien/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5295104/roseanne-barr-ambien/"},"headline":"Roseanne Barr Blamed Her Racist Tweet on 'Ambien Tweeting'","datePublished":"2018-05-30T12:02:28.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T19:37:51.000Z","description":"'I've done weird stuff while on Ambien'","url":"https://time.com/5295104/roseanne-barr-ambien/","keywords":["Television","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt278205fd025a2d67/698931c986f68e2d1c6e94d6/roseanne-barr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt278205fd025a2d67/698931c986f68e2d1c6e94d6/roseanne-barr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Paley Center For Media Presents: An Evening With \"Roseanne\"","caption":"The Paley Center For Media Presents: An Evening With \"Roseanne\"","creditText":"Mike Coppola—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5295104/roseanne-barr-ambien/","name":"Roseanne Barr Blamed Her Racist Tweet on 'Ambien Tweeting'"}}]}] ```