10 Most Obnoxious Stars In Hollywood

Roseanne is allegedly a screeching, unpredictable, self-obsessed nightmare to work with, on set and in the writing room, at least according to those who worked for her on her hit sitcom Roseanne. The worst part is, she’s forever claiming to be a misunderstood visionary and tragicomic genius – but her supposed martyrdom is undercut by her deliberately provocative and abrasive public persona, which is only really a slight exaggeration of her private self. Indeed, often you’d be hard pressed to slip a hair between the two.

The scary thing is, that’s all true, and none of it is true. Just because she’s paranoid doesn’t mean they weren’t out to get her. Roseanne Barr is absolutely right: her show was seminal comedy, made that way by the hard work and fierce commitment of its star and creator, who was forced to embody that larger than life, obnoxious harridan persona to take back ground stolen from her, and then to advance further into enemy territory. Initially told that she would be running things, the network and executive producers simply lied to her and placed a man in charge: whereupon she spent the entire first season kicking ass and getting her show back, maintaining its hit status for years to come.

Traditional sitcoms continue to rip Roseanne off to this day - the show and the comedian herself. She gave their first writing jobs to Joss Whedon and Judd Apatow, famously firing one Chuck Lorre from her staff. John Goodman was the biggest star to come out of her show, but not the only one. All of this is true - and yet Roseanne’s struggles came at the price of her stability, famously having caused more than one breakdown and/or meltdown. It’s true that they were out to get her… but that doesn’t mean that she wasn’t paranoid. It’s true that she was forced to become obnoxious and louder than everyone else to keep herself in the conversation… but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t obnoxious and loud.

Roseanne Barr is a screeching, unpredictable self-obsessed nightmare to work with, and a misunderstood visionary and tragicomic genius. Whether you believe she’s more one than the other probably says more about you than it does about her.