Ellen DeGeneres is “trying to figure out who I am without my show” in first major appearance since cancellation
DeGeneres did not skirt around the elephant in the room on the first night of her "Ellen's Last Stand...Up Tour," which will be taped for Netflix this fall
Aux News Ellen DeGeneres
When Ellen walked on stage for the last episode of her eponymous talk show in 2o22, she told audiences, “Today is not the end of a relationship, it’s more of a little break.” For the past two years, that break hasn’t really felt all that small; the once ubiquitous host all but disappeared from the public eye after a series of BuzzFeed News reports alleged incidents of “racism, fear, and intimidation” on the set of her talk show in 2020, leading to the show’s inevitable cancelation two years later. But Ellen’s silence finally ended this week, as she took the stage once again for the first show of her “Ellen’s Last Stand…Up Tour” on Wednesday night, a return to the form for the personality who began her career in similar clubs.
DeGeneres knew exactly why the sold-out crowd was there. “I used to say that I didn’t care what other people thought of me and I realized… I said that at the height of my popularity,” she quipped at the start of her set in West Hollywood’s Largo at the Coronet Theater, according to a Rolling Stone reporter who was in attendance. “It is such a waste of time to worry about what other people think… Right now I’m hoping you’re thinking, ‘This is marvelous, I’m so happy to be here.’ But you could be thinking, ‘Let’s see how this goes.’”
What has DeGeneres been up to in the interim? Other than pulling together material for the tour, which will remain in Hollywood through June before traveling to San Diego, Washington State, Oregon, and the Bay Area, she’s apparently been wearing a lot of sweatpants, doing a lot of gardening, and collecting a lot of chickens. “What else can I tell you?” she reportedly mused, before sarcastically answering, “Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business.”
“For those of you keeping score, this is the second time I’ve been kicked out of show business,” DeGeneres said later, referencing her eponymous ‘90s sitcom that was canceled after she came out as gay. “Eventually they’re going to kick me out for a third time because I’m mean, old, and gay.”
Continuing to riff about the “mean” allegations, DeGeneres also joked that she “didn’t know how to be a boss.” “I didn’t go to business school. I went to Charlie’s Chuckle Hutt,” she said. “The show was called Ellen and everybody was wearing T-shirts that said ‘Ellen’ and there were buildings on the Warner Brothers lot that said ‘Ellen,’ but I don’t know that that meant I should be in charge.”
On a more serious note, the host also said that the controversy has “been such a toll on my ego and my self-esteem.” The backlash was “so hurtful,” she said during a Q&A portion at the end of the show. “I couldn’t gain perspective. I couldn’t do anything to make myself understand that it wasn’t personal… I just thought, ‘Well this is not the way I wanted to end my career, but this is the way it’s ending.’” During a different segment, she also drew parallels between her experience and her mother’s growing dementia: “Now my mother doesn’t know she’s my mother and I’m trying to figure out who I am without my show.”
While some of this feels like a bit of a deflection when seen purely in text (“I don’t know who wronged me. I don’t even know who these people are, so I can’t seek revenge,” she said at one point), it’s obviously hard to capture specific comedic inflection—especially from someone so wry—without seeing it in person or on-screen. Luckily, fans and former admirers will be able to judge for themselves soon; DeGeneres also announced that the show would be taped for a Netflix special this fall. In the meantime, both DeGeneres and the rest of the entertainment industry have some tough questions to ask themselves about her place in the culture moving forward.
33 Comments
An abusive piece of shit?
Has she tried being a nice person?
I think she did at the start of her career but that didn’t pay the bills.
“Hey, I *DANCED*! What more do you fuckin’ plebs want!?”
…or tried making a sitcom that’s actually good? I applaud her bravery for coming out when she did – but I bristle at the narrative she’s developed since then that her show was cancelled because of it. From what I remember, Ellen was cancelled because it just wasn’t that good.
No, he sitcom WAS good, and then when she came out it became ABOUT her being gay and was no longer about a group of funny friends working at a bookstore, and it was no longer funny.
It was decent enough a show until she came out, then it struggled. There were episodes that dealt directly with her identity, she got into a relationship with a woman, and I remember those episodes being good. But a lot of people thought those were the worst episodes, because it “had an agenda” or something. Basically it became impossible to please enough people to keep it on the air. Maybe that means it just wasn’t very good, come to think of it. But it did run for several years, it wasn’t a terrible flop or anything.
The sitcom AFTER, the one with Chloris Leachman?? Yeah, that wasn’t very good. At ALL.
I’m still not entirely sure what she did, to be honest. It sounds like she’s agreeing there were problems, so there must have been something, but all the reports I read were so vague.
“I couldn’t gain perspective. I couldn’t do anything to make myself understand that it wasn’t personal…”Uh, it’s COMPLETELY personal you muppet. You were revealed as a nightmare with an utterly manufactured “nice” persona, which you leaned into whole-heartedly once you realized it would make you rich.
yeah, incredibly weird takeaway. ‘it’s not personal, it’s just about my personality and actions’
having followed her since her early days, i honestly don’t think her “nice” persona was always manufactured. she clearly *was* nice, then she got kneecapped and had to fight to get back on her feet, and then slowly but inevitably as her career climbed she was nice until it became a manufactured niceness, i.e., her brand that she had to stick by.
Don’t forget about her dog adoption controversy.
I almost feel bad for her in that I think she came up in a time/place within the industry where that kind of behavior was SOP until all of a sudden it wasn’t. And she probably had to grow an extra thick skin and sharp elbows because yea, she was unfairly pilloried that first go around with her sitcom. It also probably didn’t help to be under the kind of pressure that comes with having to generate, oversee, and deliver content every single day for like 20 years. Ultimately doesn’t excuse mean/unprofessional behavior. I’d say yea, I do ultimately feel bad for her but I also definitely don’t buy her schtick anymore and believe she is indeed culpable for the shit that went down under her nose, whether she went to business school or not. Like, as someone who went to business school I can attest, spoiler — it doesn’t make you a better person, usually it’s the opposite.
As with politics, if you aren’t a malignant narcissist in the first place, it’s the sort of business that makes you into one real quick.
Does make you wonder how much was the sand shifting beneath her feet as years went by. There’s no doubt that it is hard to put out a daily TV show and probably not a lot of time for extra niceties. But people won’t put up with being treated a way that was standard 15 years ago. From what I recall it was as much the behavior of her producers as her own that was the problem and it’s possible, if not probable, that as someone in the business for decades she paid it very little mind.
Maybe she could star in another Disney ride with Bill Nye where they extol the virtues of “clean coal.”
A rich annoying person?
This is meant to be a comedy show? Was she performing at a therapist convention?
“I have been kicked out of show business” says person performing a comedy show to a sold out crowd.
On the one hand, she’s welcome anywhere she doesn’t need to be a boss.On the other… whining about not having a TV show doesn’t earn sympathy from the rest of us who never had one.
why not retire??
“Charlie’s Chuckle Hutt?” Is that, like, a fat space beast with a sense of humor? I hope the new owners hire a proofreader.
“Eventually they’re going to kick me out for a third time because I’m mean, old, and gay.” You got canned the first time for being gay, which was awful. And now you’re leaning on your gay status, like that’s equivalent to your disgusting behavior that ruined your show and got you canned THIS TIME. Not the same thing, at all.She really is awful, huh? I can see why my gay friends hate her. And the word ‘hate’ is not an exaggeration.
Is an entire stand up special about being mean better or worse than her previous special, which was about being rich? I can’t decide.
Yeah, I was wondering how her *ALLEGEDLY* being a huge piece of shit would be able to find an outlet without her show. She can’t just *ALLEGEDLY* do that to regular people!
I wonder about some of the comedian/celebs who choose to host talk shows. Right after seeing Trevor Noah’s stand up for the first time (and loving it), I found out he was hosting The Daily Show and I hated it because these hosts have to pander to some very dumb, often boring people. His talent was wasted there, imo. Also, I couldn’t stand Letterman; he was true to the tradition of male hosts leering at women guests and asking inaproppriate questions. Refusing to hire women writers wasn’t a good look either. Love O’Brien, though. He had the perfect combo of originality, playfullness, curiosity, political awareness and, yes, humility.
AVClub should hit spell check before publication. 2o22?
Oh boo hoo….try being a human being.
She heard all those people saying “There’s no wrong way to be gay” and decided to put it to the test.
Without her show isn’t she just super rich?
“but I don’t know that that meant I should be in charge”This is textbook ‘not taking accountability’.
If you’re #1 on the call sheet, and even more when your name is on a building, you have an enormous amount of responsibility and power over how things are done. You set the tone, if not more.You may not know about everything around you or be able to change things with a single request, but your behavior sets a standard for others to follow. But her name was on two shows, she had that power.