The maker of a sleep-aid drug has something to say about Roseanne Barr seeming to blame the pill for her infamous racist tweet.
After ABC canceled her sitcom Tuesday due to her racist tweet mocking former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, Barr explained that she had been “Ambien tweeting.”
On Wednesday morning, Sanofi US, the manufacturer of Ambien, tweeted this slam back:
People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication. — Sanofi US (@SanofiUS) May 30, 2018
Boom.
It should be noted that Ambien does indeed have many very strong potential side effects including “behavioral changes such as bizarre behavior, agitation and depersonalization.” Other side effects include confusion, disorientation, and aggression. Barr is not the first celebrity to point to the drug as a cause for a behavioral incident. (See: Lindsay Lohan, Sean Penn, Tiger Woods, Adam Levine, and Eminem, to name a few.)
Barr later took to Twitter to clarify that she wasn’t blaming the drug.
no, i didnt i blamed myself. stop lying. Yes, I have had odd ambien experiences on tweeting late at night-like many other ppl do. I BLAME MYSELF OK? it's just an explanation not an excuse, Ok, bully? — Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018
thanks for supporting me! I gave them the weapon to kill me-I was not equipped to take all the heat. I cracked & made a stupid insensitive joke-it's my fault. — Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018
Hours after Barr’s Tuesday morning tweet describing Jarrett as a combination of “Muslim brotherhood” and “planet of the apes,” ABC canceled the second season of her rebooted comedy, which had been scheduled to return in the fall.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey announced Tuesday.