Jerry Seinfeld Doesn’t Think Roseanne Barr Should Have Been Fired From Her Show

Iconic comedian Jerry Seinfeld has spoken out regarding the outrage surrounding Roseanne Barr, who was promptly fired from her sitcom, Roseanne, after calling a black politician an “ape.”

“I didn’t see why it was necessary to fire her,” Jerry recently told Entertainment Tonight. “Why would you murder someone who’s committing [career] suicide?” He added, “I never saw someone ruin their entire career with one button push. That was fresh.”

Despite her departure, Jerry doesn’t think ABC should’ve written Roseanne’s character off the show. “I think they should get another Roseanne,” Jerry said. “They brought [John Goodman‘s character] Dan Conner back, he was dead and they brought him back. So, why can’t we get another Roseanne? There are other funny women that could do that part. You need to get the comic in there. I hate to see a comic lose a job.”

ABC cancelled the reboot after its lead tweeted a series of racist and anti-Semitic posts, most notoriously about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. “I’m a lot of things, a loudmouth and all that stuff, but I’m not stupid for God’s sake. I never would have wittingly called any black person a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And people think that I did and it just kills me,” Roseanne said after the fact.

“I didn’t do that. And if they do think that, I’m just so sorry that I was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry. But I don’t think that and I would never do that. I have loved ones who are African-American, and I just can’t stand it,” she added. The network has since reinstated the sit-com, sans Roseanne, titled The Conners.

This post was written by Kate Wagner. It originally appeared on our sister site, Now to Love.