The comedian returns to the stand-up stage for the first time in six years, joking that if her “Be kind” motto had instead been “Go f*** yourselves,” maybe things would have gone differently.
‘Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval’
Wilson Webb/Netflix © 2024
Ellen DeGeneres tells fans what she’s been up to lately in the trailer for her upcoming and final stand-up special for Netflix.
“Well, let me catch up on what’s been going on with me since you saw me last. I decided to take up gardening. I got chickens,” the comedian says in the For Your Approval first look that dropped on Wednesday.
Then comes the punchline: “Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business.”
For Your Approval, which hits the streamer Sept. 24, is the second of her two-special deal with the streamer, following 2018’s Relatable, which was her first stand-up special in 15 years. With this special, she returns to the stand-up stage for the first time in six years.
When DeGeneres first announced the special, she said it would be her last and she promised to get personal, and that she would touch on, like she says in the trailer, getting kicked out of show business.
“The ‘Be Kind’ girl wasn’t kind, that was the headline,” she says in the trailer. “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.’ Had I ended the show by saying, ‘Go fuck yourselves,’ people would have been pleasantly surprised to find out I’m kind.”
DeGeneres memorably faced toxic workplace claims in the summer of 2020, which prompted a formal investigation that led to the dismissal of key executives at her long-running eponymous talk show. The host who, as she said, built her brand on the motto “Be Kind,” opened her following season 18 with a lengthy apology. When deciding to end The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2022 after 19 seasons, she told The Hollywood Reporter of the decision at the time, “as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore.”
The allegations were not what made her ultimate decision, she said, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t impact her life. “My whole being is about making people happy. And with the talk show, all I cared about was spreading kindness and compassion, and everything I stand for was being attacked,” she said in 2021. “So, it destroyed me, honestly. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”
Earlier this summer, DeGeneres went on tour with Ellen’s Last Stand … Up, but her final shows were canceled abruptly, ending the tour in July. During tour stops, she had reportedly joked that she was “kicked out of show business” for being “mean.”
Per the logline, For Your Approval will be the final comedy special of DeGeneres’ historic career: “Ellen gets personal and reveals what she’s been doing since being ‘kicked out of show business.’ From the mundane world of raising chickens and parallel parking to the harsh reality of becoming a brand name celebrity, she goes deep into her stand-up roots and brings the laughs through life’s most real and absurd realities.”
Elsewhere in the trailer, DeGeneres says she went into show business to heal her 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. “And all I can say about that is, thank God for the money.”
For Your Approval is produced by Ben Winston and his Fulwell 73 Productions, along with DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi. Joel Gallen (Chris Rock’s 2023 live Netflix special Selective Outrage) directs.
