After Roseanne blamed Ambien for her racist tweeting, I made a joke in yesterday’s blog that the drug will need to place on its warning label; “May cause racist tweeting.”
Sure enough, after I did that, the company that makes Ambien, Sanofi US, issued a statement which read, “People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
There have been a lot of jokes about the warning label and side effects, and there’s even a trending hashtag, #AmbienTweeting. Several cartoonists have also taken it on. I couldn’t resist either. It’s just too funny.
Roseanne tweeted, after stating she was leaving Twitter, “It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting.”
Ambien does have side effects. It’s a sedative for insomnia. The side effects include blackouts, sleepwalking, and sleep feasting. People who take Ambien often wake up to an empty refrigerator and wonder if they’d been burgled by raccoons when it was just really themselves to blame. Some people hallucinate, like seeing raccoons in their fridge. But, I don’t think you can blame the drug for racism.
Looking at the side effects, I would think you should try marijuana before Ambien. It’ll make you wanna feast too, but without the blackouts.
While Roseanne may be gobbling the stuff like Tic Tacs, I’m going to bet she was a stupid racist before she started taking Ambien.
Some tweets at Roseanne over her Ambien excuse are golden.
One person tweeted, “While on Ambien I’ve made sandwiches, initiated sex with my husband, and called a friend to read her poetry at 3am, and didn’t remember doing any of it, but I wasn’t a racist asshole.” Her husband probably is not complaining too much.
Another posted, “I’ve taken Ambien and all I did was eat a quesadilla cooked inside another quesadilla.” I don’t need Ambien to do that.
One guy shared, “not sure if Ambien makes you tweet racist stuff but I can confirm pairing Makers Mark with Hot Pockets at 1AM will make you ‘like’ all of your high school crush’s Facebook photos.” I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m gonna bet that at 1:00 AM liking your high school crush’s photos is from the Makers Mark more than it is from the Ambien. Also, pepperoni pizza Hot Pockets are delicious at any time.
Donald Trump tweeted about the Roseanne controversy too, but he didn’t reference Ambien. He was wondering why the president of ABC never called him to apologize for mean stuff said about him on the network. I’m not sure why Trump thinks the episode is about him. It’s not Memorial Day.
Full disclosure: I had to look up Ambien to find out what it was for. I avoid all drugs (not because I’m such an awesome person, but I’m a coward with drugs) and usually don’t know what a particular one treats until it’s in the news.
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Email Clay Jones at [email protected]