Ellen DeGeneres makes her toxic-workplace scandal a punch line in her new Netflix special.
The comedian, whose popular eponymous daytime talk show ended in 2022 after employee allegations of racism and intimidation, used her final stand-up special (ever, she says), Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval, to get the last word. In it, she riffed on getting “kicked out of show business” and the rumors that she’s “mean.”
DeGeneres told the crowd at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis that she didn’t think she’d ever do another special — or “anything ever again after the show” — because “I didn’t think I’d ever find the funny in it.” However, during the hour-plus special, she said it was “beyond healing to say the words” she had kept in and to “say goodbye on my terms.”
What does DeGeneres say about being ‘kicked out of showbiz’ and her ‘mean’ reputation?
A 2020 BuzzFeed exposé saw current and past Ellen DeGeneres Show employees make accusations of racism, intimidation and sexual harassment behind the scenes. DeGeneres wasn’t the target of the claims, which were investigated by WarnerMedia, but faced criticism for allowing that environment to fester. While the show continued until 2022, DeGeneres’s reputation took a hit. Social media was flooded with stories claiming the host known for telling people to “be kind” was actually the so-called queen of mean.
“I got kicked out of show business,” DeGeneres said in the special. “Yeah, because I’m mean. You can’t be mean and be in show business. They’ll kick you out. No mean people in show business.”
She also says she was kicked out of showbiz previously after she came out in 1997.
“No gay people in show business,” she joked. “They kick you out. Can’t be gay and be in show business. Eventually, they’re going to kick me out a third time for being old — mean, old and gay — the triple crown.”
DeGeneres said “the problem” was, “I’m a comedian who got a talk show and I ended the show every day by saying, ‘Be kind to one another.’ Yeah, I know, it seemed like a good idea. Here’s the downside. I can never do anything unkind, ever, now.”
In the special, taped in August, DeGeneres addresses her “mean” reputation and the workplace toxicity allegations on her namesake daytime talk show. (Wilson Webb/Netflix)
She added, “Had I ended my show by saying, ‘Go f*** yourselves,’ people would have been pleasantly surprised to find out I’m kind.”
DeGeneres also called out the ensuing headlines and how she became “the most hated person in America.”
“I didn’t see the other names on the ballot, but it’s an impressive title,” she quipped. “It really is. It’s a horrible thing to say about somebody.”
DeGeneres said that she had been “in therapy” to “deal with all the hatred” being flung her way and that it impacted her mental health.
What does she say about her talk show?
“I loved everything about that show,” DeGeneres said. “It was a family.”
However, she acknowledged, “I was a very immature boss,” with jokes and pranks, including having snakes that dropped from her office ceiling with the press of a button. She said it’s “because I didn’t want to be a boss. I didn’t go to business school.”
While her name was on the show, “I don’t think that meant that I should be in charge,” she said. “Like I don’t think that Ronald McDonald’s the CEO of McDonald’s.”
She talked about being raised as a “people pleaser” and about how female bosses especially were made to tread lightly in the workplace.
“We have all these unwritten rules based on gender, of acceptable behavior, of who we’re allowed to be and how we’re allowed to act, and if we don’t follow those rules, it makes people uncomfortable,” she said.
“And when people get uncomfortable, there are consequences for those of you keeping score,” she added, referring to her Ellen sitcom being canceled in 1998 after she came out.
What else does DeGeneres joke about?
She used comedy to talk about other serious topics, which included sharing that she has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD).
DeGeneres also spoke about her mother, Betty, having dementia, which she called “horrible.” Now 94, Betty is living in a care facility.
There was a lot of lighter stuff too. DeGeneres delivered observations about cars, chickens, dry cleaning, gardening, pigeons, butterflies, bone-density tests, climate change and sweatpants. She also said she hasn’t gotten Botox or fillers since she signed off TV.
Does Portia de Rossi make a cameo?
Yes, her actress wife came onstage at the end to a roar of applause. DeGeneres noted it was their 16th wedding anniversary.
As far as other celebrity name-checks, DeGeneres also mentioned that she declined an invitation to a party for Mick Jagger because she didn’t want to change out of her sweats, and she arrived so early to Usher’s Grammy party that she helped set up.
DeGeneres also talked about watching more Wheel of Fortune in her free time and getting excited seeing which gown Vanna White would be wearing in each episode.
DeGeneres’s wife, Portia de Rossi, makes an appearance in the special. (Adam Rose/Netflix)
What were her parting words?
During the curtain call, DeGeneres told the crowd that she’s “proud” of who she is.
As a public figure, “I’ve spent an entire lifetime trying to make people happy, and I’ve cared far too much what other people think of me,” she said. “So the thought of anyone thinking that I’m mean was devastating to me, and it consumed me for a long time. … So after a lifetime of caring, I just can’t anymore. So I don’t.”
DeGeneres, in her final comedy special, talks about being in therapy to process “all the hatred” directed at her in recent years. (Adam Rose/Netflix)
She said she “has a choice of people remembering me as someone who was mean or someone who was beloved,” and she chooses the latter.
DeGeneres ended by telling the crowd, who gave her a standing ovation, that she “had no intention of doing a special. I had no intention of doing anything ever again after the show. I didn’t think I’d ever find the funny in it.” However, traveling for her “Ellen’s Last Stand … Up” comedy tour allowed her to “see the love and support that is still there for me, which I didn’t know I had,” which has been “beyond healing.”
“I’m so glad I got to do this,” she said. “I’m so glad I got to say goodbye on my terms, and I can’t thank you enough.”
Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval is streaming on Netflix.
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