In her pre-sitcom days, Roseanne (Barr) Arnold's stand-up act was funny, if quite R-rated.
However, her latest HBO special, which airs Saturday at 11:30 p.m., is another bit of evidence that the self-proclaimed queen of television isn't wearing her crown easily.This hour is filthy and offensive, and not the least bit funny.
Roseanne begins her act by spouting her political views, which include her belief that those who oppose abortion are child molesters.
This is supposed to be funny?
There's an extended segment on her own dysfunctional family, which is almost painful to watch in light of recent news stories. Far from eliciting laughter (except from an apparently inebriated audience), this segment is pathetic and sad.
She whines about how she's so misunderstood over the infamous Star Spangled Banner incident. She whines that her kids don't respect her. (Small wonder.)
And one can't help but wonder how her children feel when Roseanne tells a national television audience what a jerk their father is and how she hates him.
The woman can't even seem to deliver a joke anymore. She drags out her bits and repeats the same lines over and over again, bludgeoning the audience with them.
And not only does she use every filthy word known to man while telling her jokes, she spouts dirty words gratuitously between jokes - as if she knows nothing else.
From watching this hour, it's difficult to understand how Roseanne ever became a star.
The only good news is that, unlike seemingly every other public appearance Roseanne has made in the past couple of years, her talentless husband, Tom Arnold, is nowhere to be seen. But he's listed as both an executive producer and director of the show.
That may help to explain a lot of things.
On a scale of one to a hundred, this Roseanne Arnold special rates a zero. - Scott D. Pierce