r/television • u/Gato1980 • 13h ago

Ellen DeGeneres Is Unapologetic, Unrelatable and Totally Insufferable in Her New Netflix Special 'For Your Approval'

https://www.cracked.com/article_43701_ellen-degeneres-is-unapologetic-unrelatable-and-totally-insufferable-in-her-new-netflix-special.html
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u/DrKurgan 12h ago

Regarding the unrelatable part, she was already unrelatable in her 2018 special which was called "Relatable". She had jokes about getting lost in her house for example. Her life being unrelatable is (for better or worse) part of her shtick. She doesn't pretend to be a regular person like some other extremely rich comedians do but it comes out as tone deaf most of the time.

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u/Electrical_Dog_9459 8h ago

Remember back in the 90's when they had "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" on TV? Can you imagine that being on TV today? Back then it was aspirational. Today it's infuriating.

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u/Super_Harsh 7h ago

There still is shit like that on network TV today lol. And there's plenty of tasteless content like that on social media nowadays. The audience for that kind of thing hasn't gone anywhere

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u/Morgn_Ladimore 2h ago

I used to be the audience, watched Cribs on MTV all the time.

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u/IcyTransportation961 4h ago

Uhhhhh tons of people gobble that shit up,  celeb worship is very alive and well from tabloids to reality tv to plenty of reddit

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u/Green-Amount2479 2h ago

I would say that this is incredibly deeply ingrained in US culture, imho the myth of the ‚American Dream‘ still has a lot of influence on people. It just blinds people with the ultimate goal that everyone can make it to the top. But the reality is more like this: Everyone, as in having a chance to? Maybe. All of them eventually? Never, that would be economically unsustainable. But a lot of people still think they can get there eventually, if they just...

It helps to keep that myth up by showing these people the small percentage that has ‚made it‘ like they do with those TV shows

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u/driverdan 6h ago

It's still popular. There are some equivalent YT channels that are very successful.

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u/N22-J 4h ago

Architectural Digest

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u/DontCallMeMillenial 3h ago

TV today is more full of that crap than ever before...

There are so many "rich people" reality shows of any given flavor you can choose. It's gross.

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u/ctrlaltcreate 8h ago

Yeah, but the 80s was the decade of un-ironic conspicuous consumption, if ever there was one. Even then, social dissidents hated that shit, they just weren't taken seriously by everyone too high on coke and the lie of reaganomics.

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u/NewbieInvesting86 3h ago

I don't find that too different from AD's house tours today or mtv cribs years ago. All have houses unattainable by avg joe.

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u/NewSauerKraus 4h ago

I never knew the Good Charlotte song was a reference to a TV show lmao.

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u/FuzzyOptics 4h ago

It never changed. You might have been too young to see it from an adult's perspective.

MTV Cribs was airing in the early 2000s. More recently we've had stuff like the Kardashians show. Million Dollar Listings. And all kinds of outrageous conspicuous consumption by YouTubers.

Kids nowadays don't think about income inequality when they see some YouTuber swim in a hot tub filled with hundred dollar bills or whatever money-flaunting stupid shit those assholes do.

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u/shpeezophrenia 4h ago

u havent heard the good charlotte song named after the show (its based as hell), this kinda shit will always be aspirational to some and infuriating to others bc it's a rorshach test for class consciousness

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u/Not_Stupid 3h ago

Real Housewives of [insert location here] is basically that yeah?

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u/shikavelli 1h ago

There’s still plenty of that stuff, hell all these streamers and YouTubers constantly show off how rich they are.

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u/ivenowillyy 14m ago

And MTV cribs

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u/slowrun_downhill 8h ago edited 7h ago

I mean that was the whole point. “Relatable” as a title is meant to be ironic. She’s Ellen DeGeneres, she knows that her life is totally different than the average person.

But that’s her comedic style, she takes something common and takes it to the absurd place that is not at all based in reality.

In her first album “Taste This,” she talks about how her dad liked to play practical jokes and it ends with her living with a native tribe. Obviously that’s not a joke that ages well (which shouldn’t be used as ammunition, because most comedians jokes don’t age well - even the late, great Bill Hicks), but she’s always had a consistent way of writing jokes.

I personally love Ellen! To each their own, though. I can’t stand Dave Chappelle and some people love him. My partner and her side of the family absolutely love Jim Gaffigan, I think he’s pretty funny. I love John Mulaney and think he’s hilarious, and my partner thinks he’s pretty funny. Humor is fickle.

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u/blood_bender 7h ago

I also find Ellen's humor very funny, in general. Her dry seriousness is very well crafted. By contrast, I also find Conan absolutely hilarious, I will cry laughing, even though him and Ellen are polar opposites in style, so I do agree humor is fickle.

I think where people (most of reddit, and myself sometimes) get caught up is Ellen is, according to almost all reports, not a pleasant person to work for, not a pleasant person in real life, and some of her interviews are kind of just mean, not funny. Whereas Conan clearly has a crew of people who want to work with him for decades and it seems treats everyone down to interns with respect. So the hate for Ellen is strong, and even I will question whether she's being dry or just disdainful at times. Humor is one field where the art and the artist are almost impossible to separate.

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u/Philly139 7h ago

Relatable was the first special I watched from her and I actually thought it was pretty funny.

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u/Jimthalemew 6h ago

Loved “Relatable”. It was not funny. She wasn’t funny the whole set.  

 But she was at least aware that she had given up on trying to understand anything that is not super rich.  

 Like she could absolutely kill in front a crowd that is bored with super-yachts. But she admits she has no idea about people that have to check how much money is in their accounts. 

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u/StarPhished 5h ago

Nothing you said is incorrect but leaning into it is the better choice over pretending she's normal. If she did the latter the image in my head is something like Hillary Clinton doing stand-up.

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u/MarcusXL 1h ago

She's strikes me as someone who is adamant that they have it both ways. She wants to flaunt her wealth and success. She wants to flex on all of us plebs. She also wants everyone's sympathy and doesn't want to be held to a higher standard, or even any standard.

There are celebrities who come across as down-to-earth (whether they are or not), because their conduct gives the impression that they know that their money and success are fleeting, at the end of the day they're just people with more toys. Ellen seems to really believe she's better than others, and wants us to know it, but she also wants to be liked. It's an obnoxious combination.