‘I think funny is funny’
Michele Manelis talks to Roseanne Barr about reviving her eponymous hit sitcom
You seem to have a knack for tapping into the everyday life of the average person. Well, because I live with them.
I have a farm in Hawaii. I live in a farmer’s community and all you have to do is listen to people. And everything that’s in this show are the things that my community is talking about. I have empathy for that because I grew up like that.
Comedy has changed a lot over the last few years. Did the humour also change on the reboot?
No. I think funny is funny.
What are some of the issues that this reboot tackles?
The biggest thing that we will talk about is healthcare and stuff that happens to regular people. A lot of my friends had to have their parents move back in with them, as well as their children and their children’s children. That is [the situation of] my generation of women in the United States.
What inspired you to write about these situations?
It’s very topical and I always like to do the thing that nobody else is doing.
Do you have control in the writers’ room? They are all my ideas, otherwise I wouldn’t have signed back up. I am not coming back to fight like I did all those years ago. I am coming back to make people laugh and entertain them. Are there a lot of women in the writers’ room?
It’s mostly women but the men we have, I will tell you, and it sounds sexist, but I have great men. Oh my God, I have great men writers. And I like those two perspectives a lot. So I have it balanced exactly how I want it. And that is fun.
What’s the biggest realisation coming back to Roseanne all these years later?
Well, a lot of us comics think you have to suffer in order to be funny and that is why we have such bad lives. But I am finding that’s not true — and that’s a relief. I feel like I am doing my best work that I have ever done.
You’re very much the head of the house in Roseanne. Is that how how were you raised by your mother?
Yes. I come from a culture where women are the heads of the house. And they have supportive husbands who aren’t as involved as them, and that they support.
What makes you laugh the hardest?
A lot of stand-up comics make me laugh like that. I like to watch them. And some television shows make me laugh, too. I really like Orange is the New Black. It’s got the most hilarious, ridiculous, absurd moments and I just love that, so unexpected.
Why do you feel so strongly about Trump? He’s a provocateur and he likes to get people going. I totally get that. I think his tweets are funny a lot of the time and I think he means them to be funny. I think he has a good sense of humour but more than anything, I met him several years ago, and he was very nice to me and has always been very nice to me. And I think he is a closet progressive thinker.
Do you like to use Twitter? Yeah, I have a blast with Twitter.
What matters most to you?
What matters to me is feeling like I am helping someone to get out of a state of misery and into another state, which is hopefully laughing it all away. So making people laugh and communicating with an audience is what I like to do. I like to perform and show off.