Ellen DeGeneres Fires Back at Critics in Feisty New Netflix Stand-Up Special

Ellen DeGeneres is back in what is said to be her final stand-up special, For Your Approval, and the former talk show host is not holding back when it comes to her thoughts on being “kicked out of show business.”

The Netflix special sees DeGeneres addressing the 2020 controversies surrounding her eponymous talk show, which was accused of fostering a toxic workplace environment. She ultimately decided to end the show in 2022, though she claimed it wasn’t due to the allegations.

“Here’s the problem: 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,” DeGeneres says in the new special, per The Hollywood Reporter. “Had I ended my show by saying, ‘Go f*** yourselves,’ people would have been pleasantly surprised to find out I’m kind.”

After a recap of dramatic headlines from the 2020 debacle, DeGeneres makes her way to the stage to give her own version of events. “I got kicked out of show business,” she says at the start her lucrative Netflix comedy 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 quipped. “Kicked me out before because I told them I was out. No gay people in show business. 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.”

While DeGeneres also jokes about topics such as parallel parking and chickens, she mostly focuses on the 2020 controversies, even if she doesn’t go into specifics of what happened.

“I was a very immature boss. Because I didn’t want to be a boss,” she says at one point before explaining how she enjoyed pranking guests and crew members. She reveals she had a button in her office that could trigger fake snakes to fall from the ceiling. “Scaring was just a big component of the show,” she admits.

Later in the show, DeGeneres talks about the reasons she got into comedy and show business, saying, “It was never about the money. It was about healing my childhood wounds.”

“I thought if I could make people happy, they’ll like me. And if they like me, I’ll feel good about myself,” she says before quipping, “And all I can say about that is, thank God for the money.”

Towards the end of the special, DeGeneres tells the audience she is “happy not being a boss or a brand or a billboard—just a multifaceted person” before calling herself a “strong woman.”

For Your Approval was produced by Ben Winston and his Fulwell 73 Productions, along with DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi, who appears on stage with her at the end of the show. Joel Gallen (Chris Rock: Selective Outrage) directed the special. It was the second special in a two-show deal with Netflix following 2018’s Relatable.

Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval, Premieres, Tuesday, September 24, Netflix