The Best Burns About Ellen DeGeneres’ Insane, Self-Pitying Stand-Up Special

Four years after scores of former Ellen DeGeneres Show employees came out with allegations of abusive behavior on behalf of their beloved boss, DeGeneres is back onstage enjoying adoring applause from her fans and herself.

DeGeneres’ first stand-up special since 2018 and her first major project since the conclusion of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2022 premiered on Netflix yesterday, and Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval is already in the running for the weirdest, most self-aggrandizing and fundamentally unfunny stand-up special of 2024, in a crowded field no less. In For Your Approval, DeGeneres chalks up the mountain of allegations that she created a toxic work environment rife with “racism, fear and intimidation” as the overblown reactions to the rare occurrence of a “strong woman” like herself heading a media empire. 

Simultaneously, DeGeneres goes to great lengths to paint herself as a bullying victim rather than one of entertainment’s most notoriously vicious bullies, acknowledging the outpouring of online criticism that surrounded her scandal back in 2020 in a bizarre intro sequence that the internet itself couldn’t help but laugh at for all the unintended reasons.

Right now, the hordes of Twitter users who have read the firsthand accounts of DeGeneres habitually abusing and humiliating her employees on The Ellen DeGeneres Show among other targets are tearing apart For Your Approval like it’s a waitress with chipped nail polish, giving special consideration to this insane, self-pitying walk-out scene.