Roseanne Barr Bungles the American National Anthem

On July 25, 1990, comedian Roseanne Barr was booked to perform the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", before a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds at Jack Murphy Stadium (then-owned by Tom Werner, the co-owner of Carsey-Werner Productions, which produced Barr's successful sitcom Roseanne). However, her version was performed extremely off-key, with Barr covering her ears early in the song, and ended with Barr scratching her crotch and spitting on the ground.

The response was negative. The crowd at the stadium booed Barr throughout the song; she later explained that, in an attempt at "adding humor" to the song, she was pretending to be a stereotypically old-fashioned baseball player with a penchant for chewing tobacco (explaining the spit at the end), and that she sang loudly because she thought she wouldn't hear herself over the PA speakers, explaining Barr covering her ears. This performance was even criticized by then-President George H.W. Bush, who called it "disgraceful". The performance was placed on #74 in the 2004 book ''What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History'' by David Hofstede.

Luckily, in 2012, Barr sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" on an episode of The Comedy Central Roast, in which she sang the song successfully.

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The Performance
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