When comedian Tracy Morgan made some impolitic remarks about homosexuals, he was taken to the politically correct woodshed that had this banner posted over the door: “If you Don’t Recant, We’ll See to it that You Never Work in this Town Again.” Dutifully, Morgan recanted:

“I want to apologize to my fans and the gay & lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville. I’m not a hateful person and don’t condone any kind of violence against others. While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context.”

So there are boundaries, even among comedians, unless that comedian rants about Christians, conservatives, and people who make money (unless they’re liberals). Roseanne Barr is the perfect example of the double standard.

There’s the time she dressed as Adolf Hitler, moustache and swastikas included, and baked “Jew Cookies” in an oven. When they’re “done,” she starts to eat them. Since she’s a comedian, no harm was done. It was supposed to be funny, even though it wasn’t. I can’t remember if any Jewish groups made a fuss.

Long before this episode, Barr had some choice words for people who oppose killing preborn babies: “You know what else I can’t stand, is them people that are anti-abortion. F**k them. I hate them. They’re horrible. They’re hideous people. They’re ugly, old, geeky, hideous men. . . . They just don’t want nobody [sic] to have an abortion ’cause they want you to keep spitting out kids so they can f***ing molest them.”1

Again, she’s a comedian so she can say these types of things.

Her latest rant is against rich people (except, of course, herself and her “entertainment” compatriots who make tens of millions of dollars a year). Here’s her solution on how the banks should repay the money the U.S. government bailed them out with in 2008:

“Part of my platform is, of course, the guilty must be punished and that we no longer let our children see their guilty leaders getting away with murder. Because it teaches children, you know, that they don’t have to have any morals as long as they have guns and are bullies and I don’t think that’s a good message. . . . I do say that I am in favor of the return of the guillotine and that is for the worst of the worst of the guilty.”
“I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount of that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded.”

Since she’s a liberal comedian, there’s no harm, no foul. If a conservative, even a conservative comedian, had said anything like this about how liberals support policies that lead to political oppression at home and abroad, she would have been pilloried in the press. Her words would have been labeled as “hate speech.”

If Barr wants to prosecute the right people, I’m all for it. The first place she should look is Congress. They’re the ones who made laws that took the risk out of lending. The mortgage crisis was made possible by liberal legislation. The lenders took advantage of a law that said they could not lose on a loan. Of course, if she went after them, then she would be denouncing her own Party’s policies.

Politicians — Democrats and Republicans alike — have robbed working Americans of trillions of dollars, and people like Barr want trillions more spent. So who is really guilty?

1. Roseanne Barr, HBO Comedy Hour (June 20, 1992). Quoted in TV, etc. (July 1992), 3. [↩]