Scott Baio and Wanda Sykes don’t see eye to eye about a recent interview in which Joe Biden said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or [Donald] Trump, then you ain’t black.” The Democratic nominee voiced the latter during an interview with Charlamagne tha God on The Breakfast Club, May 22. Sykes later defended Biden by suggesting on Twitter that he “made a bad joke.”
That same day, Baio slammed Sykes in a tweet that read: “Hey @iamwandasykes why is it okay for @JoeBiden to say something clearly racist but @therealroseanne gets kicked off of her own show that YOU are a writer on, for making a mistake? Is it because you’re a full of s—, hack liberal?”
Oh! Hey Chachi. Apologies, I didn’t see you. I’ll keep it short. Joe Biden didn’t say, “Then you ain’t an ape.”
Well, let me get back to work…I hope you enjoy whatever it is that you do.
— Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) May 27, 2020
Baio was referencing the Rosanne Barr controversy in 2018, when the actress compared Valerie Jarrett, a black former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, to an ape on Twitter. As a result, she exited her ABC sitcom, Roseanne, and was subsequently killed off its ABC spinoff, The Conners. As for where Sykes comes in? — She was a consulting producer on Roseanne, and when Barr’s comment came to light, she tweeted that she would not be returning to the show. Sykes did not provide a reason at the time.
On May 27, Baio took a second shot at Sykes on Twitter. He tagged her in a re-tweet of a video that showed her calling Trump an “orangutan” during a standup. The video labeled her as a “hypocrite.”
— Scott Baio (@ScottBaio) May 27, 2020
Sykes caught wind of Baio’s tweets and replied with an explanation about her stance on Biden’s controversial comments.
“Oh! Hey Chachi. Apologies, I didn’t see you,” Sykes wrote in her response on May 27. “I’ll keep it short. Joe Biden didn’t say, ‘Then you ain’t an ape.’” She continued, “Well, let me get back to work…I hope you enjoy whatever it is that you do.”
Biden came under fire after a radio interview last Friday. He later called his comments “really unfortunate.”
Sykes’ full tweet about the situation at the time, read: “Biden feels at home speaking to the Black community,” she wrote on Twitter. “He made a joke. Comedy ain’t easy, but he didn’t say 2 go shoot Clorox in our tits. Now, I wouldn’t make a blanket statement to say that voting for Trump means you’re not Black. I would say that it means you’re not smart.”
