On Wednesday, it was announced that The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s next season will be its last. It’s been a long time coming, after BuzzFeed News published an exposé in 2020 where employees detailed how much of a toxic workplace it was behind-the-scenes. The piece detailed instances of racism, workers being fired after taking medical leave or a day to attend family funerals, and gender wage gaps. The next morning, after announcing the show’s last season, DeGeneres appeared on Today to discuss why she decided to end Ellen, denying that it had anything to do with the allegations.
“If it was why I was quitting, I would’ve not come back this year. Because everything happened—what you’re talking about was last summer. And honestly, I really did think about not coming back because it was devastating,” she said. She noted that the main reason why she considered stopping the show after the exposé was because she felt that her fans would start believing the (very credible) allegations were real: “I just kept saying to Portia [de Rossi], ‘If I was a fan of somebody and even though I loved them but I kept seeing something going on this long, I would think there must be some truth to it because it’s not stopping.’ That made me think someone’s trying to really hurt me.”
She also claims she had no idea the show was a toxic work environment. “I never saw anything that would point to that. There was an investigation that happened and I found out there were some things that happened that were not okay and we took care of that. But it was horrible timing, because it was me, then the show, and it was a thing that felt like ‘Why do I want to go back?’ It felt really personal and it felt like somebody really didn’t want the show to come back. And I thought, ‘Well, if I don’t come back, they win. And I’m not going to let them win.’”
She also hints at being framed for the allegations the terrible treatment of employees and for multiple rumors of her being rude to people, saying “I thought something was going on because it was too orchestrated, it was too coordinated. People get picked on but for four months straight for me, and for me to read in the press about a toxic work environment when all I’ve ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is and what a happy place this is.”
But in the words of Dakota Johnson, that’s not the truth, Ellen! Months before the BuzzFeed News piece that delved into the show’s fraught environment, famed YouTuber Nikkie De Jager told Dutch magazine &C that she didn’t enjoy her experience on the show, saying, “Call me naive, but I kind of expected to be welcomed with confetti cannons: ‘Welcome to The Ellen DeGeneres Show!’ But instead I was greeted by an angry intern who was a bit overworked.” She also shared that DeGeneres didn’t greet her personally at any moment pre-interview. And let’s not forget that legendarily awkward interview with Dakota Johnson, where Johnson point blank told her she didn’t know if the talk show host liked her. Now that Ellen is over, we’ll have to see if other celebrities finally feel comfortable detailing what it was really like to be on the show.
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She dances. What else do you want?
Dance, monkey!
*Dakota Johnson angrily tweets Ellen’s address*
*Spike Lee angrily tweets Dakota Fanning’s address*
*Ellen DeGeneres angrily tweets Spike Jonze’s address*
*Werner Herzog sits back and watches the world burn*
For those seeking further clarification on Cinecraft’s comment here, it has nothing to do with the Degeneres saga; Herzog was just doing that anyway.
As always.
And writes reviews on said burning world (I know it’s satire…maybe):
Research for his stylistic docudrama he will be filming after the smoke clears.
*James Woods tweets “See you in hell” to everyone on Twitter*
That penguin didn’t want to be saved. Sometimes they just want to die, and we have to live with it.
*Spike Jonze angrily tweets Robbie Robertson’s address
*Margot Robbie tweets Spike Jonze’s address, then hours later deletes tweet to replace it with a clown and hammer emoji. 🤡🔨
*Robbie Robertson angrily tweets . . .uh, Garth Hudson’s address?
It’s probably a cabin in the woods and doesn’t really have an address.
*Elton John angrily tweets Elton Johns adress*
*David Lynch films 15 continuous hours of himself staring into the camera in stark black and white, attaches the video to an email in .wmv format, and emails it to himself, but in the future.*
I don’t get it.
*Don Johnson angrily tweets Philip Michael Thomas’ address.**Philip Michael Thomas happily retweets.*
*While James Franco lamenting where are everyone tweets of him, and why they are all ignoring his tweets.
Did he take off the protective vag barrier before he lamented?
I heard it perfectly laminated.
As it should
“This is Harry Potter’s address…” Dumbledore tweeted calmly.
*Rudy Giuliani angrily tweets his own address, phone number, social security number, bank account number, and zip file containing evidence of major crimes committed during the Trump administration*
(Am I at fault?)“No, it’s the children who are wrong.”
Reason for Cancelling show:
[checks box next to] Spiting my audience and critics.
God, I’m old enough to remember when that episode first aired. Bunch of the political stuff went over my head, but when I grew up and re-watched it I’m like, “Simpsons! You can’t just murder the president on TV!”
Yeah it’s crazy how much time has passed. I can still remember when “Lisa Goes to Washington” was brand new, and that was season 3!
I was never a big Simpsons fan, but somehow I was home and not at church for that episode.
Stupid Flanders.
I was a day old when it aired.
Yeah it’s crazy how much time has passed. I can still remember when “Lisa Goes to Washington” was brand new, and that was season 3!
What episode is this?
Shout out to one of the great Simpsons lines: “Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions.”My absolutely favourite thing about that ep isn’t that they dunked on George Herbert. He grudgingly admitted to liking the show, and I guess he would’ve appreciated that they didn’t really go all in on his politics, but just as Mr. Wilson parody. No, the real hater of everyone’s favourite four-fingered yellow family was Barb, and you know the writers of that ep threw some absolute shade by making her nice, level-headed, and friends with Marge.
They see you as something of an ogre ma’am.Ellen: “I ought to club them and eat their BONES!”
They see you as something of an ogre ma’am.Ellen: “I ought to club them and eat their BONES!”
They see you as something of an ogre ma’am.Ellen: “I ought to club them and eat their BONES!”
Whyyyyy won’t you let my comment ride, The AV Club? Why are you so much more terrible than you were 10 – 15 years ago?
“Good daytime television. Good, not great.”
Two anti-Ellen articles in two days, Tatiana? And Ellen is wrong about this being a coordinated campaign against her how again?
“And let’s not forget that legendarily awkward interview with Dakota Johnson, where Johnson point blank told her she didn’t know if the talk show host liked her.”
You know, when you say something and post a link, people can SEE the video.
I thought something was going on because it was too orchestrated, it was too coordinated. People get picked on but for four months straight for me, and for me to read in the press about a toxic work environment when all I’ve ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is and what a happy place this is.
What kind of bad-faith argument relies on unprovable Twitter allegations? “My friend said…” Maybe your friend should be the one tweeting to help prove they’re not completely fictitious?And this response was based on an open bribe for “insane stories,” another completely suspect aspect of this anti-Ellen campaign.
I think you’ve mistaken me for someone who gives a shit about any of this.
And you’ve mistaken me for someone who will fall for an “I’m so above this article that I’ve read, quoted, and dug up a related tweet about” response like this. Do better.
Make me.
Ellen?
Well, I for one have released a two hour YouTube video about how I don’t care about Ellen, so I don’t see how you could possibly dispute the mounds of evidence showing how little I care.
I mean there are never any shortages of people happy to come forward and talk about their positive experience with a celeb when they’re being criticiz—“anti-Ellen campaign”Oh dear
Oh fucking Christ, get over yourself. Ellen is a shit person (well, more accurately she exhibits symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and has never received treatment) and that’s that. I just…. Defending Ellen’s honor on fucking gawker comments is one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen
They all had to sign NDA’s. None of them are allowed to talk about their time on it.
Reminds me of trump and Qaren Taylor Greene’s complaints that no one has ever been treated as unfairly as they are treated!
Is that a NPD thing?
lol what the fuck. No wonder she was into promoting Kevin Hart so much after his refusal to apologize, girl ain’t into the whole accountability thing.
I believe you mean his refusal to apologize AGAIN, and repeatedly on demand every Time some jackass brings up decade old tweets to try and burn him again.Way to takedown a popular black comedian, you antiracist angel you.
“That made me think someone’s trying to really hurt me.” By all means, the main thing here is that “they” are out to get you. It’s not about anyone else or how they were treated, you fucking hack, it’s about a vast conspiracy to hurt you, because with your hundreds of millions, you are the one most at risk.
I wish her a long and happy career on 1960s’ Thunderbirds
Wat
I’m shocked. Most people in her position would’ve immediately owned up to it.
Another ‘trump’ looser “Stop the Steal!”. Denial enough and you will win?
Tell me most people
You have a point, but honestly she sounds a bit Qanon-ish here with her “coordinated attack” theory.
It doesn’t sound crazy if she legitimately had no idea the work environment was so terrible for the staff, and heard about it for the first time in Variety that morning.
I have no knowledge if she was “mean” or not, but the existence of sad interns and staffers who don’t get to interact with her doesn’t mean Ellen herself is a terrible person — I assume those are instructions from producers who may just not want their star bothered walking around the halls. Has someone actually come forward to say that they tried to greet her in the elevator and she threw a stapler at them or something?
Conan was talking about this on his podcast – he had on Angela Kinsey (from The Office) who was one of his interns back in the day and she said how they were told on their first day not to talk to Conan if you saw him around the studio. But Conan said he never actually had that rule and it was producers that made the rule and told interns/staffers.Not saying Ellen is a great person, but a lot of the stuff sounds like pretty basic show business, and she may not have even been aware.
Eh, I’d disagree with you that ‘coordinated attack’ is conspiracy-theory-ish. Many of the big social media platforms UX is specifically designed to stir up controversy. That’s the thing that I learned to really hate about twitter and fb, is that it’s mainly a grievance sounding board… that lets you target people en masse.
On the other hand, the idea of being so stupid rich that I can order people not to talk to me is kind of appealing.
We already do that for free!
I aspire to be famous enough that I can dictate precisely how my dressing room is to be arranged or I will refuse to go on stage.
Hmm, a “rider” for my entire life sounds pretty good.
I’m not going on until someone brings me a shepherd’s pie!
Don’t forget the bowl of M&Ms without any [choose color] M&Ms!
Not to be THAT GUY, but….. you do realize the colored M&M contract rider was for a very real and seriously important purpose, right?
Yup. I did know that. Brilliant “barometer”. I totally understand & respect that. I’m pretty sure that Diamond Dave didn’t need more green M&Ms.
Fun fact: Van Halen was the band that specified a bowl of M&Ms with the brown ones removed, but they had a good reason. Their shows were highly technical, with a lot of gear that needed to be set up just right. All of the specifications were in their contract, along with the M&M requirement. So if the band turned up and saw brown M&Ms, they’d know the venue hadn’t read the contract and they’d make sure to check the technical stuff before going on.
You couldn’t look her in the eye, either. So, she was being “nice”. You’d catch a cold, looking into those steel voids.
That’s a deal-breaker. I want people to be able to look me in the eye so they can fully absorb my disdain for them.
I love this so much. Christmas card message. Thank you!
I got bumped up to 1st class once. As the plebs shuffled their poor miserable lives past me, I would occasionally glance up only to quickly look away in disdain as I sipped champagne.
I had to ride back in coach and every day since has been duller and greyer than the one before.
She denies ever requesting that. At the same time, I’ve never worked anywhere where every single staff member was invited to chat with the CEO whenever they felt like it.
That picture just screams “I don’t get people. Like, what do they eat? Do they play in the yard or something?”
I am not a big fan but she had been rumored to be pulling the plug on this for several years. There were quite a few people who said they were surprised she re-upped for three years back in 2019. A contract that expires after the 2022 season. I don’t think she was ever going past 2022 and the toxic workplace scandal just fucked up her exit plans. Once that happened, that would always be the reason she was quitting no matter what she said.
I, for one, did not want to dance when I walked on stage, but she pushed and pushed until I gave in! “Do you know who I am?! I’m Ellen Motherfuckin’ DeGeneres! I am God here!”Plus the goodie bag was filled with sand and it had a little hole in the corner and Ellen followed the trail back to my house and then broke in to my house and swapped all my Almond Joy bars with Mounds! Gross!
You liar. I don’t believe you actually have Almond Joy bars in your house.
Well, not anymore, no. They’re Mounds now.
At least she left new candy. Back in the 1990s, Jenny Jones broke into my house and just removed the Almonds from my Almond Joy bars and tried to reseal the wrappers with saliva and write Mounds on them in Sharpie.
Gosh, I didn’t realize my experience was part of a larger pattern. I knew something was wrong because she spelled it “Moods.”
Hey at least she didn’t break in and make your hair Unbe-Weavable, and then bring out your friend who has a secret homosexual crush on you lol
Her shtick always came across to me as treacly and phony, like somebody pretending to like humans for money, but then I’m from New England, where the weather keeps us a little more honest about our shitty attitudes.
Hosts are performing. Hate to break it to you, but Johnny Carson was an asshole, alcoholic, misogynist, but behind the desk he was all pro. But it was an act
LOL, you just described almost every actor and talk show host between 1960 and 1990.
Right, that’s why I said “her shtick” and not “her personality.” A performance doesn’t have to be bad — it can instead be good!
This might also get stuck in your craw, but I think that Ryan Seacrest is a weird fucker, too.
This might also get stuck in your craw, but I think that Ryan Seacrest is a weird fucker, too.That’s not an unpopular opinion.
Guess I didn’t lay the sarcasm on thick enough — I, too, know this.
Ryan who?
Why’s Ryan weird?
Conan is pretty cool both on and off camera.
Same, I’ve lived in most regions of the country and it’s only reinforced my arrogance and belief that we are in fact the best ‘n realest part of America. The fake-nice wellwishing and performative friendliness, especially in the South is just so…creepy. And it’s not like New Englanders are THAT rude (like those prick Yankee fans in New York) – people just get to the point and don’t waste time if they don’t plan to love you.
New Yorker who’s lived in SC for 8 years, that’s exactly how I describe it to the people down here “we’re not rude but we are impatient if you waste our time” and I would arguing were actually the nicest people in the country because any kindness we show is 100% genuine. Not phony smiles. But then again, you’re from New England so you guys barely exist to the rest of the country…..
Magnified 100 percent by being from RI. In Canada they think we’re part of New York. It helps to have the sports teams there to remind everyone who we are in horrible detail. I’m actually happy for the Knicks this year, the Celtics don’t deserve that 4th seed.
I’ve been through RI and you know what? That shit is not that bad. People think it’s boring but to me it’s the coolest little secret in the NE. Always found something interesting to do. I mean, RI is like a classier Delaware in some spots and I mean no snark!
RI has so much in such a small area. By far the best food scene in the region, every town basically has an ethnic enclave and thus a very diverse range of food, and there are quirky things you’d only find there like clam cakes, coffee milk and frozen lemonade. And pizza strips, cheeseless rectangular pizza found in bakeries. Jersey and Utica New York has it, called tomato pie there. Besides food great music and a growing brewing scene, and a ton of ocean/historic stuff of course
people just get to the point and don’t waste time if they don’t plan to love you. That’s…probably the best way I’ve seen it put.
I wanna say it’s somewhat due to differing religious beliefs. More people in the South believe that there’s more time to waste, as this life really isn’t as important as the next. Whereas more secular places are well aware that this truly could be it, and time is ticking away so let’s make the most of it.
Personally I think it’s hilarious that Ellen is the real-life Larry Sanders.Hopefully her producer is a Salty Dog-loving master of profanity and Portia De Rossi yells “Hey Now!” a lot.
In all fairness, though, what was done to her needs to be done to James Corden too.
It’s kind of surprising how she’s got this reputation (now tarnished) for being nice, given how her schtick is basically just doing things that the guests on her show are uncomfortable with. Case in point:
—Coercing Mariah Carey into drinking champagne on her show or admitting to being pregnant. —Calling out Dakota Johnson for not inviting her to her birthday party, when in fact she was invited.—Mispronouncing Hasan Minhaj’s name even after he corrected her. There’s many more.
Looks like she wants to show us what she got for Christmas.
I’ve been reading/hearing for years from peeps in the industry that DeGeneres is mean as fuck. The first public airing of this side of her personality I remember was when she and Anne Heche broke up and Heche made those accusations then Heche was the “mentally unstable” one, blah blah. And yeah, she did struggle with mental health challenges but jesus, *she* got crucified and DeGeneres got a popular talk show. Anyway, I’d always really liked DeGeneres up until that point. Her stand up and TV persona was/is very warm, friendly, funny, gently self-depreciating. But life long experience with a few monstrous NPD (narcissistic personality disorder) types has given me an unhappy ability to spot the red flags and yeah, DeGeneres seems to have them. Keep gaslighting, Ellen! There will always be a few saps who believe you long past reason or credibility.
Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons has been dropping loud hints for YEARS about how toxic the Ellen show was when he worked there, then following that up with the fact that he can’t give specifics because of NDA’s he’s signed.
I really, really liked Ellen for a very long time, felt bad for her over the fallout of her coming out, and was happy for her comeback with the talk show (plus she was a great Oscars host). But I’m not a talk show viewer and pretty much never watch daytime tv so I seldom caught her show. But I have a sister-in-law who watched it religiously so when I was visiting her, I’d see it, and I was a bit shocked by what I was seeing. Because I was seeing glimpses of a meanness and a smallness in Ellen that wasn’t apparent when she was a younger comedian, and I was like when did this start. So when all the talk about her being mean surfaced I wasn’t at all surprised.
Have you seen that Netflix comedy special she had like 1-2 years ago? She really comes across like a self-absorbed rich white Boomer lady in it. Like I watched that and thought, “Martha Stewart is nicer than this person. Stewart is strict and perfectionistic, Ellen has a mean bone and it starting to stick out.” Well, that was my impression anyway.
The constant ‘scaring people for laughs’ was enough for me. I hate that kind of shit. It simply isn’t funny to me. Unless the person getting scared at the surprise is someone who always pulls it on others and thinks it’s HILARIOUS. But that’s not humor, it’s justice. ;)You know hoe they say the pun is the lowest form of humor? Nope. Jumping out and yelling “Boo,” is.
On that note, is she still doing that prime time game show where she abuses the shit out of contestants?
Eeek – my typo. How… No clue – I may watch fewer game shows than daytime talk shows…
It was on over the winter. You can tell Ellen really got off on the abuse of the contestants. She tried to play it as a joke but she enjoyed it.
I’m sorry, who said puns are the lowest form of humor? I say lock them up in a pun-itentiary.Never mind, I hear it now.
Heeeee.
Yeah I personally really hate that shit, even things like Punk’d are pretty mean-spirited when they involve dead bodies or seizing people’s homes. I especially hate when kids are pranked and it’s videotaped, like the caramel onion ones. Like, there’s teasing and then there’s tormenting someone on camera then sharing it with the whole world no matter what their reaction is.
There was a show, the name of which I can’t remember, that did practical “jokes” and one time they had a really religious girl as their victim (and I say girl because she was a teenager.) She went to this restaurant with her friends and when she went to the bathroom, they cleared out the restaurant (it was small) and left clothes laying around in all the chairs and waitstaff uniforms on the floor. As if the rapture had happened and she was left behind.She started *bawling*. She was devastated. I mean, I don’t believe in shit like the rapture, but that is just mean. That is probably the meanest prank I’ve ever seen played on someone (except maybe that show with John Quinones called What Would You Do? where they make people in a public place think that someone is being abused emotionaly, racially, etc.)
Oh yeah, like I get the theory of some of these shows especially one where you test people’s morals, but it also comes down to an issue of consent and privacy, most people are trying to live their lives without being subjected to potential public ridicule. The rapture prank idea sounds hilarious until you consider that this is what someone truly believes, and it’s not her fault, especially as a kid. And at that moment she truly thinks the world is ending. I even feel a bit weird about shows like Crank Yankers, as funny as it is, you just take a huge chunk out of someone’s day messing with them. Unless later on they tell them about the joke and they consent to allowing it to air, it’s just….kind of a crappy thing to do. And I think the show does them all in Nevada because you’re allowed to record phone calls there.
The “What Would You Do” show bothers me becaue they use really distressing scenarios (serious racism, serious mental abuse, serious implied physical abuse, serious misogyny) to see what people will do and I feel like it manipulates people’s emotions. There’s enough real of all that stuff in the world, do we really need to create false but believable scenarios just to find out what, if anything, people would do? It’s not even like they can say it’s science. They’re just trying to get people to watch. I would probably be mad if I saw one of those scenarios and then found out it was fake. Because, 100%, in a lot of those scenarios I would be crying and/or screaming at the person doing it. Have you ever heard of Roy D. Mercer? It started in Tulsa on the morning show on KMOD. They used to do this all the time, calling people up and basically harassing them (the victims were suggested to them by friends or coworkers.) It was famous enough that by the time they got to the end and they told them who they were, they had to know they were going to be on air. And I never heard anyone mad after they found out the truth, so they probably asked for permission to air it. (It’s not illegal to record a call in Oklahoma as long as one party consents, but it may be illegal to air the call without their consent. I don’t know.)
Oh I hate that scaring people for laughs shit too. When I found out this was a regular thing on her talk show I was like how fucking old are you, Ellen?
Then again, puns are often followed by boos 😛
Watch the episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Ellen. It’s 100% clear that she’s outwardly nice while actually viewing everyone else (including Jerry Seinfeld) with contempt. Ironically she reminds me of a lot of middle-aged Evangelical women I’ve known. Bitter and hateful, but believing themselves to always have the moral high ground because they’re so “nice.”
Between her and Jerry, who himself is a mean sunnuvabishh, that is one (no doubt quirky) car I would not like to be in.
I feel like I’d get roasted if I were in a car with both of them.
Yeah that was a very uncomfortable episode.
You’re gonna be in for a real shock when you learn that 90% of public figures are assholes.
It’s not necessarily either/or and she’s not either good or bad. She might have some blind spots from a managerial perspective. I certainly don’t think she’s a psychopath.
I also think the AV Club is entirely wrong to print this as its borderline defamatory and clearly vendetta-driven. They’ve misreported the story twice now: Warner Brothers and previous news stories back up that her show is ending on good terms with her bosses.
Additionally, Ellen Degeneres has the right to believe the treatment of her was harsh. We might disagree with her, but this article is stating she’s not entitled to her own opinion and must see the error of her ways. DeGeneres has said in interviews that members of the press and mobs on twitter have taken delight in being destructive towards celebrities and creative types and she’s right. AV Club is proving her point if anything.
I am probably alone in saying this, but I was still hoping their was an ounce of dignity that she would hold on to and try to genuinely make improvements on the show. After all, she’s never going to have a platform this big again. It would take a lot of work, but it would still be worth her time to keep that show going. She still had a window of opportunity to turn it around and become the really likeable person with see on tv.
….And then she decided to quit because it’s easier to be an asshole than to improve, I’m done.
I can remember watching her and Paula Poundstone on a comic show (possibly the HBO Half Hour Comedy Hour) and they were both brand new (first time I saw either, possibly the first time they were on TV) and thinking how funny they both were. I used to watch Ellen’s sitcom when I could, too. I always liked her humor.I haven’t liked her talk show for a long time. I do like to watch Twitch dance, though.
See that photo of Ellen at the top. The eyes in particular. That’s such an American thing. I talk to people from the US all the time and they have this weird stare like Ellen does, like they’re not really looking at you but looking past you. Like thier mind is elsewhere.It’s such an American phenomenon and I can’t find a name for it, but it’s a thing. It’s a bit weird.
I won’t miss her.On the other hand, Dakota Johnson seems like a lot. Everyone’s an asshole. It’s just a case of whether you’re upwind or downwind at the time.
And that’s one to grow on!
Are you having a stroke?
Do you smell burning toast?
You don’t smell burning toast when someone else is having a stroke. It doesn’t work like that.
DON’T TELL ME HOW TO HAVE A STROKE!
I’m sorry. Can I push that half of your face back up for you?
Can I have a thread composed solely of you and Big Salad arguing about strokes? Any kind of stroke, really. I’m not picky.
If Billy Squeir had a stroke…would that be tragic? Or ironic?
I don’t know, Man
Whaddya say, Salad?
Clearly she’s determined that anyone who was going to give a fuck has already abandoned her and is now just going to shout “fake news” to the ride or dies.
Oh no, an unknown YouTuber didn’t get the red carpet rolled out for her! So toxic!!!
She was expecting confetti cannons. Maybe the problem in that case wasn’t Ellen?
Part of me hopes that was hyperbole, but the other part strongly suspects it wasn’t.
As one who didn’t follow the show; was she known for confetti cannons? Or even those t-shirt shooters that are probably more dangerous than most idiots at the ballgame think?
No idea.
No. Its hyperbole, and if you learn it I suspect your understanding of the world will grow exponentially…
It definitely wasn’t.
Is ‘confetti cannons’ slang for boobies? I think it should be.
It is now. As of right now, whenever you or I appear on Kinja and the subject turns to boobs, we refer to them as confetti cannons.
Todd and I have spoken.
Not literal confetti cannons. Lol
I completely believe the allegations of how bad the work environment was for Ellen’s staff but that comment was so ridiculous. These YouTuber / influencers think that everyone will kiss their ass because online plebes do.
All of these articles always have some petty absurdities mixed in with the real allegations. The Armie Hammer article mentioned, alongside genuinely disturbing allegations, the fact that he ghosted someone.(I’m anti-ghosting but that happens to everyone)
Eh, I’m sure famed YouTuber (sorry I can’t stop giggling when I type that) was exaggerating as far as expecting confetti. And in fairness it wasn’t she herself who used Famed Youtuber as a job description.
Because they’re written by 22-year-olds with no apparent editorial oversight.
No people just expect to be welcomed when they’re a guest, not be treated like a burden….. Its common decency and common sense tells you what YouTuber was trying to say. You’re being obtuse.
Hyperbole. She was going for “not treated like an asshole”.
I’d guess that about 95% of talk show guests are greeted by interns or PAs. The fact that she might have had one in a bad mood? Who the hell cares?
Generally hosts do swing by the green rooms and greet all the guests before the show. If she had done another show before, she absolutely would think that’s weird.
Some do, some don’t. David Letterman was famous for never seeing guests before they came onstage.
I don’t think you want to be taking cues for how to run a workplace from Letterman, triply so if your entire brand is being nice.
Cues for beard maintenance…now you’re talking!
You’re kind of going out of the way to ignore the Hyperbole here. You’re taking her comment VERY LITERAL and this crowd is generally smarter than that….
How many TV shows have you been on? I think this experience likely varies wildly.
As an on-air guest? Zero. As a guest of a guest? Three. A friend is an assistant to an actor so she’s been to all of them, except for the really new ones because they haven’t done promo since before the pandemic.
I mean, she was invited as a guest. Guest. You invite someone over, they should expect that the hosting party at least is amenable to having them there.
Paying first class for her flight to LA and putting her up somewhere nice wasn’t enough? Jesus.
Well, if I were wined and dined some night – had a great night out – but the last interaction was : “Hope you had a good time dipshit. No you can’t use the bathroom, go piss in the alley. Don’t let the screendoor hit you on the way out.” No matter how good the night, I’d be apt to tell the story about the snotty shmuck who wouldn’t let me use the bathroom. She was dishing in an interview, and her very next statement, not printed here, was “ I am happy with the experience.”
Holy hyperbole man!Obviously, she did. People expect to feel welcome when they’re invited, not a burden. Which is clearly what happened here and the point of her comment was that it appeared Ellen didn’t treat her staff very well. I’m surprised there are so many Ellen Stans here….
Seriously, “looking at me in the eyes and talking to me between takes” =/= red carpet.
Yeah, I didn’t want to be a dick and say it, but…yeah. If your only complaint is that you weren’t greeted with confetti cannons, then…yeah, you’re gonna think the overworked intern seems “angry” regardless.I also can’t hate on Ellen for not personally greeting guests before each show. I mean, she’s getting ready to perform on a show and probably has a bunch of stuff to do to get her own self ready. Why would she go greet each individual guest that she’s about to see on air anyway.But that’s really all I have to say about it. I am indifferent to Ellen as a person and I don’t watch her show and have only vaguely followed the allegations. I just think that this particular allegation should probably have been left out if you’re trying to prove Ellen is awful. I’m just not inclined to believe someone who talks on YouTube for a living and is therefore financially invested in drumming up as much attention as possible.
Are you people really that dense? She wasn’t literally expecting confetti canons. She was expecting a happy, upbeat productions staff (which DOES exist at other talk shows), not a flustered PA and dark morale all around. And I can confirm that on other shows the host visits with the guests backstage before cameras roll.
I think it’s pretty obvious that we know she wasn’t expecting literal confetti cannons. But the point isn’t changed by the fact that she was expecting figurative confetti cannons either.Being greeted by “a flustered PA with dark morale all around” (which is your description, not hers), hardly seems a complaint on par with some of the others that I’ve heard about the Ellen Show lately, and I don’t think it bears mentioning. “The PA who greeted me was in a bad mood” isn’t in the same league as “Ellen harassed me on national TV about who I’d slept with in the past” and “there’s a lot of racism on this show.”
yeh, you’d think that if someone’s entire brand is “fun and kindness” that they’d make sure guests had an all-round fun and kind experience (and that criticism is on ellen directly, not the backstage staff).it sound funny when an influencer says it, but i’d hate to think that any of the kids and teens (and non-celebs in general) who were on her show got treated that way.
You know, people frequently say to me: “Todd, I can tell you’re really angry when you don’t carry confetti cannons.”
After some reflection, they were right.
You do realize all of you are going way out of your way to ignore the fact that this is clearly hyperbole. Who even says “confetti Cannon” seriously?? Other than you folks, apparently…..
So, no one thinks she meant a literal confetti cannon. She used the imagery of a “confetti cannon” to communicate that she had very high expectations for a very exuberant welcome. My point is that perhaps her expectations were unreasonably high. It’s weird that you can quickly understand that she didn’t mean confetti cannon literally but couldn’t quickly understand that commenters didn’t mean confetti cannon literally.
Don’t you know? You gotta take everything at face value on the internet!
I like how the article described her as “famed”.
Who?
I’m gonna go ahead and accept her invitation to call her a little naive.
That’s what I was going to say. I mean, an overworked, grumpy intern? That’s normal! Then again, I suppose so is a celebrity being awful to people.As long as the truly toxic people in our world get their comeuppance, I’ll be happy. Which means, of course…
The Dutch YouTuber flown first class to L.A. So there was no party backstage – welcome to daily television. Again, these Ellen-related accusations are all mostly silly.Ellen didn’t smile at a security guard before hosting the Oscars – the most stressful gig I can think of? She maybe asked staff to tell a jr. level staffer not to come into her office constantly (and uninvited) with ideas but to pitch them to the appropriate person?
Even everyone going on about that Dakota Johnson bit — which was likely at least semi-pre-planned — yes, it was cringey… but it was supposed to be: that’s DeGeneres’ style of comedy. It ain’t new. Be kind doesn’t mean act like a robot. She’s raised millions for charity, helped raise awareness for myriad causes and has really made a difference in the world.
.
Are we certain she isn’t a Republican?Or did she just read the handbook?
She was very unhappy when she was revealed to be best buds with GWB.
That’s the thing – it was the revelation, not the friendship, that was the issue for her. And the whole non-responsibility thing and throwing others under the bus, don’t we recognise that especially from a certain segment of society the last few years?
But Obama and Clinton also best buds with GWB though.
Yeah but they are all in the same war-criminal gang so that makes sense.
And that is also bad!
They suck too.
Well, they kinda have something in common.
And they’re every bit as disgusting for it
Her and her partner were chumming it up with ole, George, “I lied about a country having weapons so I could bomb them and I was against gay marriage” Bush
Not just against marriage equality – he used it as a wedge issue to get people to vote against (and while there, cast a vote for him as well).
George Bush is also not the same person today that he was in 2004. I doubt you are either.Michelle Obama seems to think George is an alright guy.
You’re right, I also was 15 and didn’t do bomb strikes on a nation over a lie or deny people their rights or neglect a state during a national disaster to vacation. But ok Matt.And wooo! The lady that was married to the dude that sanctioned drone strikes with reckless abandon and put kids in cages, is friends with George Bush. Wow he’s so great lol
So you’re just agreeing that people change? Like yeah you’re not 15, and GW isn’t the same guy he was in 04. Side note, the drone program hit a lot of Taliban and worse. War is awful, but like… the targets were the people that blow up schools because they don’t like it when little girls know how to read. Yes there were mistakes made, yes, innocent people get caught in the crossfire in war. It’s easy for you to armchair quarterback a conflict across the world when you don’t have to actually face any of the reality of it.
Hey yeah, he’s only responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent lives being taken and never faced any consequences for it but it’s been awhile so he’s probably changed a whole bunch!
Yeah but I also did not invade two countries under false pretenses in 2004. Nor did I ever push, normalize and weaponize hatred against LGBTs and Muslims.
I don’t know if you remember, but a lot of people used to be against gay marriage. Many of them changed their views over time, particularly over the last 20 years.
Months before the BuzzFeed News….famed YouTuber Nikkie De Jager told Dutch magazine &C that she didn’t enjoy her experience on the show, saying………. “ I was greeted by an angry intern who was a bit overworked”Tatiana, your scraping of the barrel is an embarrassment
How about fcuk Ellen DeGeneres ?
“Call me naive, but I kind of expected to be welcomed with confetti cannons: ‘Welcome to The Ellen DeGeneres Show!’ But instead I was greeted by an angry intern who was a bit overworked.”.You are naive, “Famed YouTuber” (lol wut really?)
If, as a YouTuber, you are invited to be a guest on a well-known talk show… yeah, you probably are a little ‘famed’? But even if you’re just Jane Doe enjoying 5 minutes of fame for something stupid… is it so much to expect that a host treats you welcomingly and with respect, when you’re invited as a guest?
People really don’t get figures of speech around here, do they?
Talk about being right for the wrong reasons.
I’ve ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is and what a happy place this is.”Yes that’s what the guests are telling you. But maybe you should ask your employees how “happy” this place is! God you are so fucking clueless! And of course it was all orchestrated because everyone you burned wanted to get you back.
You can usually tell when a person is lying when they don’t just say no and have to add all these qualifiers. Also I don’t get why a bunch of your employees would lie about this when doing so could lose them their job. Unlike most bosses, you are the job, so getting you “cancelled” as some smear campaign removes them of their livelihood
I just feel so relieved that by 2022 we’ll finally be free of the only shitty boss in the entire country and we can all begin to heal as one.
I don’t understand how daytime tv is popular? It must turn a profit if it’s still airing, yes? I really wonder where the medium will be in ten years.
WHY WONT HE ADMIT WRONGDOING??
Get her!!!
Ellen DID tell the truth one time, when she swore she was not Lebanese.
People who opposed women voting: “it was too orchestrated, it was too coordinated”
People who opposed the CRA: “it was too orchestrated, it was too coordinated”She’s basically saying “it really felt like people weren’t able to ignore all the crap I did because I did it to so many people they couldn’t just write those people off as a few malcontents” So the response is either “ignore that person nobody else is saying the same thing” or “all these people saying the same thing have an AGENDA” in any case Ellen is not responsible for anything.
HAHAH welcome to me too!
Ellen could be self-absorbed and phony and Dakota could be touchy and weird… at the same time!
Damn, I just checked and through this whole ‘discussion’ I’ve been thinking Dakota Johnson was the Fannings!
Since she was cancelled for years once before for not doing anything wrong can we just let this go and call it even?
Here’s the thing . . .
At no point in that interview does she, for one moment, express any sense of sympathy for the people who were affected by the toxic work environment. She was devastated because she was being attacked, she’s upset because she feels targeted, but all she says about what people went through working on her show was, “we took care of that” and “well, a lot of people work there.”
IOW, she’s a narcissist.
I would’ve been much more inclined to be on her side if she’d had said something along the lines of, “I was really upset when I heard about the things going on and that people working on my show were being treated badly. That’s not who I am and not what I want my show to be.” As opposed to, “It was really upsetting that people said mean things about me, and something-something conspiracy.”
She’s said variations of that repeatedly.
Can you point to one? I’ll admit I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but all I’ve seen is the corporate-y press release version that’s been run through the legal department and means nothing. Whenever she’s talked about it, it’s been 95% “not my fault” and “people are being mean and unfair to me” with 5% left over for anything else.
Maybe she can cry on Sharon Osborne’s shoulder.
Oh, no, can you imagine those two doing a talkshow together?
Well now I don’t have a choice, do I?
I’m… so sorry.
Here’s the thing….Even if she mentioned that she had sympathy for those who may have experienced a toxic workplace, her apology would in no way meet your the parameters of your scrutiny.
If i didn’t think Ellen was a real piece of shit before that interview I do now.
Given that there’s been talk of Ellen being difficult to work with/for going around for years before the expose, I find it unlikely that this is some new conspiracy that she’s a victim of. This falls more in line with the Me Too movement where there’s been rumors and whispered mention of her behavior and as more came to light, more became bold enough to speak up. Admittedly, someone just being an asshole isn’t in the same league as sexual assault, but her denials sound similar to what we have seen from the Cosbys, Weinsteins, Whedons, and others that have come before her.
Or she’s just, you know, lying.
I’m someone with anxiety, depression and horrible self-esteem issues. How can people like Lindsay Ellis or Ellen just buckle down and not even think that they’re not the problem when I keep having intrusive thoughts of stupid shit I did in my school days?
Ellen DeGeneres: treated her employees like shit and fostered a toxic and abusive workplace over decades.Lindsay Ellis: tweeted that Raya and the Last Dragon was an Avatar ripoff, was relentlessly hounded, released too-long video in which she apologized for her tweets but also talked about how fucked up it was that she was relentlessly hounded.Equivalent, yes.
Yeah, Lindsay definitely has some whitegirl-itis but she also has some self-awareness and her transgressions are very esoteric. She at least admits she’s wrong, in a very longwinded way. Ellen isn’t even at that point yet.
She shouldn’t have even apologized for the tweet, she had nothing to apologize for and anyone who thinks she did needs to log the fuck off. Stupidest controversy of my lifetime
It took like five reads of the thread to even understand what people were mad at
Although it was a bit dishonest of her to pretend that the controversy was over her saying that Raya and Avatar are in the same “genre”.
No, Ellis has become incredibly egotistical when giving out bizarre and uncalled for takes when she’s supposed to be an academic (giving Raya the most trotted out, skin deep “critique”), lies by omission (ignoringthe non-harassers trying to gently bring up her blindspots by lumping them in with the harassers) and comes off as someone who’s a brand now instead of a person.
So, she’s ‘supposed to be an academic’ on her twitter? She’s not allowed to make non-serious tweets? (like you know, a person instead of a brand.)She wasn’t doing some big analysis or video essay on Raya, she posted a tweet.
And she did acknowledge the non-harassers in her video; but as she pointed out, they were completely overwhelmed by the people trying to cancel her and sending her death-threats.
Friend, you have a lot of weird anger towards women over mundane statements. Ask yourself why you think you’re entitled to an apology from a woman you don’t know because she thought Raya resembled Avatar.
1) Ellis is not, and has never claimed to be, an academic. I think she has an MFA and often refers to film/literary theory in her videos but she never presents herself as a Professor of Film Studies or whatever. 2) Did you watch the video, where she acknowledges, in meticulous detail, her critics for the Raya tweets as well as every other even potentially cancelable offense? The one where she explicitly says that she has blind spots and almost certainly internalized some racist attitudes growing up in Tennessee? Was that video too long? Yes. Self-indulgent and counter-productively centering her experience as a white women? Eh…you could make the case. But to be fair I think she was upset from all those death threats. 3) I mean…she’s a moderately successful youtube video essayist and now author. I’d say her “brand” level is commensurate with that, but obviously YMMV. Regardless, comparing her to freaking Ellen in the clueless entitlement department is…um…yeah. A stretch.
bizarre and uncalled for takes
That you think this is worth any sort of reaction, let alone the one she got, is ridiculous. Nobody is owed an apology over a
trotted out, skin deep “critique”
and I can’t imagine how you think society works that makes you think otherwise.The whole thing was ludicrous bad-faith bullshit, it deserved more of a blow-off than it actually got, and it was a perfect example of the bizarre sense of vicious entitlement and imagined relationship that fans manage to form with even the most minor of celebrities.Ellen steered an abusive and toxic ship for years. Ellis made a glib tweet comparing the Disney thing to the Nickelodeon thing. There’s no equivalence here.
“uncalled for takes”Do people need someone else’s permission to share their thoughts on Twitter?
Seriously, the level of smug entitlement is astounding.
Honestly, I personally kind of think Lindsay Ellis comes off as rather smug and her content isn’t quite as brilliant as everyone makes out, but yes, this is a rather loaded comparison.
I haven’t seen Raya yet, but I assume the issue was that she should have said it was a Ferngully and Dances with Wolves ripoff. That hardly seems worthy of an apology.
Would a blast from the old confetti cannon help?
Are you still talking about boobs here?
“not even think that they’re not the problem”
Is there an extra “not”?
Your school days were a long time ago, no sense in beating yourself up about that now. You should redirect your intrusive thoughts towards the stupid shit that you say every day of your present existence (including this post)!
Should thousands of people be demanding (sometimes violently and frequently vulgarly) your public apology for this comparison of two things that some people clearly think is poorly considered? Should I be doing that?
When I was in middle school, I was picked on incessantly. So, one day I was talking with my friends, who were also people who got picked on to varying degrees. Someone said a word that my best friend didn’t know (it was a slang word, but I forgot what it was) and the others laughed. I didn’t know what it meant, either, but I laughed, too.I have times when I lay awake at night thinking about that and how awful I feel for doing that. We remained friends for a few years after, but then I moved in with my mom and went to a different school and I’ve never seen her since. I’m 50 and I still think about it and hate myself for it.I don’t know how people can be mean all the time and ever get any sleep.
Be kind to everyone. Except employees. Treat them like shit. Then deny it.
Every game has a “bonus level” that’s just middle-aged women dancing like Elaine Benes.
YouTuber Nikkie De Jager told Dutch magazine &C that she didn’t enjoy her experience on the show, saying, “Call me naive, but I kind of expected to be welcomed with confetti cannons: ‘Welcome to The Ellen DeGeneres Show!’ But instead I was greeted by an angry intern who was a bit overworked.”If this doesn’t prove a toxic work environment existed I don’t know what does!/s
If she had gone on Ellen’s Game of Games….she would’ve gotten the confetti cannons.
oh geez, I literally predicted this yesterday:
AV Club News Wire Proves It Can’t Be Trusted Yet Again with a Slam on Ellen Degeneres
I’m here to remind everyone that this did not start with a BuzzFeed expose which posed the issue as mostly racial and threw the producers under the bus.It started with a Twitter storm about Ellen being a horrible person to literally anyone she felt she could. The initial tweet donated to charity for every tweet about a story in which she wasn’t nice and it included guests like YouTubers who weren’t big celebrities, a LOT of PAs and also included more than a few stories about just having served her around LA. Some AVclub articles remember to mention this, but most don’t. Even blaming racism is in a way dog whistling to all racist Ellen Show fans that your image of her should not change and isn’t a big deal.That tweet had so many replies the author had to drop his promise to give to charity for each one as he couldn’t afford it.
I mean, I’m not a fan of Ellen (I did used to sometimes watch her show when it premiered, and kinda liked the sitcom as a teen—full disclosure 😛 ) and I have NO doubt that she is a big part of the “toxic work environment”. But that final paragraph is one of the most ridiculous I’ve recently seen on AVClub, which, after the Disneyland Snow White ride article, is saying something. NONE of those examples—someone wondering if the host even liked them (good thing they weren’t on Letterman back in the day), or the host not having time for a pre-interview greeting—seem even really slightly bad. And yet, here they are, used as proof that Ellen obviously is horrible. And again, I suspect she kinda is, but c’mon…
“Where’s my goddamned confetti cannons? I’m telling the media about this!!”
Yeah. Ellen says the guests seemed happy and the author counters with two nothing examples and then speculates that maybe
more celebrities will say they were unhappy. Give me a break. The
proper response would have been that just because the guests were happy
doesn’t mean it didn’t suck for the employees.
Yah, her embrace of psycho George Bush should’ve given it away.Anyway, if Ellen were a straight woman, she would’ve been canceled for this crap a long, long time ago, but the fact that she pretends to be a leftist shielded her from the brigade… until now, apparently.
We’ve finally reached stage 4 where the narcissistic asshole tells everyone that they are the real victim here.
Still haven’t seen a negative story on Andrew Cuomo on this site. He just said making his employees feel uncomfortable at the work place is on them, not him. But tell me more about his nipple rings, AVClub!
Savannah, asking those softball questions, at first, with that disarming “I’m your pal” smile… Ellen’s body language saying, “Bitch, just ask the question.”
This story has generally not interested me enough for me to pay very close attention, and for all I know, Dakota Johnson’s description might be taken out of a larger context where there’s something more “toxic” described than disappointment after sky-high expectations (which come off as extremely presumptuous and self-regarding) and indifference on the part of the “toxic” person. But if that is in fact the case, I think the writer of this article ought to be able to judge that a lack of metaphorical “confetti cannons,” interacting with an overworked intern, and being unable to tell if the person in question “likes” her are not great examples of this situation that we are apparently supposed to agree is genuinely abusive.
Wait….famed YouTuber Nikkie De Jager wasn’t welcomed by cannons? What a world. What. A. World.