DeGeneres Last Stand Up Show Gets Eviscerated
 |
| Not a likeabled dudette |
"THEM"
DeGeneres delivers some safe comedic banter in the early going — her chickens, the perils of parallel parking — before jumping into the reasons her career is over. (“This is the last time you’re going to see me. After my Netflix special, I’m done,” she told a crowd this summer.) But although she alludes to having been “kicked out of show business” for being “mean,” DeGeneres never confronts allegations against her outright, like staffers’ claims that producers routinely made racist remarks and microaggressions on set. The result is, well, basically another Netflix special from a comedian about being “canceled.”
Now that the internet remembered Ellen DeGeneres is still around, some folks dug through their receipts to remind us all of her apparent celebrity friendship with one Sean “Diddy” Combs, whom DeGeneres once jokingly called “Cuddle McSnugglestuff” and who is currently facing sex trafficking and racketeering charges for so-called “freak off” parties he allegedly held over a decade or more. (During one Diddy appearance on her show, a clip of which went freshly viral this week, DeGeneres commented that “once you get there, the party really starts.”)
Of course, we can’t forget that DeGeneres was a major boundary-pusher in the 1990s, coming out as gay on her own sitcom in 1997. Today, believe it or not, she may still be breaking down barriers: Trans comedian Stacy Cay quipped that the fact DeGeneres’ apparent need to make another comedy special in 2024 is evidence that gambling isn’t just for Norm MacDonald anymore.
Over on Threads, comedian Justin Avery Smith pointed out the poetic irony in DeGeneres’ downfall: Many trace the beginning of Ellen’s end to her notoriously tense interview with Dakota Johnson, who happens to be the granddaughter of Tippi Hedren, the iconic star of The Birds whose career was ended prematurely after a series of alleged sexual assaults by Alfred Hitchcock. DeGeneres has no connection to the notorious filmmaker, of course, and hasn’t been accused of assault — but it’s nice to imagine that Hedren’s descendant helped deliver another alleged Hollywood tyrant’s comeuppance.
It’s too bad that this special and its context will be how we remember Ellen DeGeneres — nobody wanted things to turn out this way, least of all the people who worked on her show. Sadly, not all mistakes can be fixed with a wide smile and an endearing dance break.
_*_
When I saw De Generes with Ex-Pres. Bush, like old friends, Bush was someone who fought same-sex sex with all his power and did much damage to us as a Gay community. Bush an old coke druggie when younger and who for the Republicans in the Supreme Court would have lost the election. Justice Kennedy stopped the count in Florida a state that was democratic back then. Democratic Governor and state Supreme court. But that was only a sign that the state was heavily democratic and results from Florida so far with the "hanging Chad" showed it still was. And that was the only reason to stop the count. Undemocratic and never heard of, she did.
Back to Degeneres. She played the part of backing Civil unions while she was in one. She played the part of being funny and a good performer. The part she could not hide was she was not a good human being.
Comments