As NewsBusters has chronicled over the years, Roseanne Barr has a history of doing and saying some truly disgraceful things, but this one really takes the cake...or the cookie in this case.
Her most-recent tailspin into the gutter involved a photo shoot with Heeb magazine wherein she is seen wearing an Adolf Hitler moustache and swastika as she takes burnt gingerbread "Jew Cookies" out of an oven (pictured right).
In another, in same costume, she is shown about to take a bite out of one of these burnt cookies (picture below the fold, h/t Justin McCarthy):
The article associated with these disgusting pictures claimed:
As the “Domestic Goddess” dons the famous moustache, transforming into “Domestic Goddess Hitler,” I notice that she’s beginning to have fun. She nails the Fuehrer’s facial expressions with twisted glee, and as she takes the burnt gingerbread “Jew Cookies” out of the oven it occurs to me that Barr may be the last celebrity utterly incapable of giving a f**k—a quality theoretically easy to embody until it’s time to face the practical repercussions. “Franklin Ajae, Paul Mooney, Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory’s passings will tear my kishkas out,” Barr laments. “They gave everything they had to just tell the truth, and they couldn’t make a decent living because of the choice they made—not selling out to Hollywood.”
Well, I'm not sure what I'd like to do with her kishkas, but I do have to wonder why a magazine targeting Jewish readers would find this appropriate. A quick look at Wikipedia provided some answers:
It has become known for its satire and sardonic approach to reaching Jewish readers of all streams. One phony ad campaign that was designed to make a point was an application for “new United Nations ambassadors”. It was a mail-in test that determined just how anti-Israel the test taker was, and the more against Israel you tested, the better the chance you had of being accepted. Heeb reported that they actually received hundreds of applicants. In a late 2006 edition, a live pig was photographed running across a traditional Sabbath dinner table. Heeb’s satirist, David Deutsch, who used his own table to stage the photos asked his rabbi if it were kosher to use a live pig on his table for this purpose, as pig meat is considered unkosher. His rabbi said that kashrus wasn't a problem, but recommended that he wash the table afterwards.
The magazine is decidedly anti-establishment and left-wing. It frequently criticizes mainstream American Jewish culture, most famously in an article entitled "Joe Lieberman is a Dickhead." The author of the piece took Lieberman to task for favoring an increase in military spending. Other writers who have contributed to Heeb include Allen Salkin, who wrote "Where Have You Gone Sandy Koufax?", an article about Jews obsessed with Jews in sports, and "Why are We So Guilty?".
Maybe I need to get a better sense of humor 'cause I'm not sure I'm getting the joke. Apparently, neither did one of the magazine's readers:
07.30.09 at 11:07 am
I think to top it off, she should go to a synagogue, grab her crotch and spit on the torah, then botch the opening canting lines to Bar Mitzvah rites..
I'm hoping lobster was being facetious.