Television Review | The complacent return of the canceled Ellen DeGeneres to the comedy stage feels like an insult

Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval. Netflix.

★

I WOULD LIKE TO sometimes getting as much pleasure from something as For Your Approval -the audience of a stand-up performance feels About Ellen DeGeneres getting.

American comedy entertainment has been plagued for a long time clapper i.e. juicing approving applause instead of laughter. The peak of the phenomenon has now been reached in DeGeneres’s in many ways silly show.

Oh, holy mother, the amount of applause.

Perhaps some kind of intoxicating gas has been released into the hall. Maybe viewers have been threatened with guns. In any case, the 70-minute long show would be at least five minutes shorter if you cut out all the interludes of Ellen fans.

I GOT IT to over-the-top audience reactions, as the new comedy special is a spectacular return to the limelight for Ellen DeGeneres after a widely publicized scandal.

Almost 20 years of top popularity The Ellen DeGeneres Show DeGeneres, who hosted the program, started to decline four years ago when BuzzFeed reports about the toxic work culture brewing behind the scenes of the program.

According to those interviewed by BuzzFeed, the producers of DeGeneres’ show were guilty of sexual harassment, racism and threats. DeGeneres herself was accused of not having intervened in the behavior of the producers and the generally oppressive atmosphere as the front person and star of the TV show.

The image of DeGeneres, who built her brand on “kindness”, did not recover from the uproar, even though the accused producers got the boot and DeGeneres expressed her public apologies. The Ellen DeGeneres Show ended in May 2022, and the comedian has hardly been heard from since.

IN THE NEW In the Netflix special, which has been billed as DeGeneres’ farewell, she uncomfortably balances between comedy based on everyday observations and commentary on her own situation.

In the latter parts, DeGeneres genuinely doesn’t seem to understand what the fuss about her was even about. The repeated claims in the headlines about the “meanness” hidden under the smiling mask have gotten under DeGeneres’s skin the most, because she returns to “meanness” most often during the show.

“There aren’t any mean people in the entertainment industry, we all know it’s hard,” he says sarcastically.

DEGENERES is – still – a competent stand up comedian who knows the traditional intro punchline format. Joking about pocket parking, animals and aging seems like a reliable staple.

In short glimpses, you can see Ellen, who was considered the best comedian of her generation in the 1990s. However, those moments are drowned in the show’s numbing ego tripping.

The Hollywood star who is upset about his cancellation and has a Rolex worth half a million dollars on his wrist didn’t get any sympathy from me.

Presentation the viewing public clearly disagreed.

“I am a strong woman,” Ellen DeGeneres declares For Your Approval towards the end and receives thunderous applause from the spectators who rose to their feet. All is forgiven.

It could be that DeGeneres didn’t have any good options for a comeback show. A long litany of confessions would hardly have convinced even that.

However, such a self-righteous presentation already feels like an insult.