Shady tweets from Ellen DeGeneres’s Twitter will have you saying “WTF”
Ellen Degeneres’s public persona has been under attack recently amidst allegations of abusive and even “mean” behavior towards her employees & guests. Even before these allegations came to light, stories had circulated that working at The Ellen Degeneres Show was a toxic experience. However, Ellen had a relatively positive reputation from her audience and other celebrities until recently.
While Ellen was known for promoting The Ellen Degeneres Show, which was once perceived as full of positivity & laughter, some of these tweets may have been early hints at what people are claiming Ellen to really be like. Here are some tweets from Ellen Degeneres’s twitter that will make you say “WTF”
Supporting Jussie Smollett
In early 2019, actor Jussie Smollett claimed to have been the victim of a hate crime in which two men wearing MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats used racist & homophobic slurs and attacked him, including tying a noose around his neck.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Smollett had staged the whole ordeal, causing his termination from his role on Empire and permanently damaging his reputation.
After Smollett’s claims but before the fraud was revealed, Ellen tweeted that Smollett had come out on The Ellen Degeneres Show four years ago and she was sending support to his family. Many had an issue with the fact that Ellen seemed to be taking this as a marketing opportunity to plug The Ellen Degeneres Show.
Usain Bolt joke
Ellen tweeted a photo of her riding on the back of Usain Bolt, the gold medal-winning Olympic athlete deemed fastest man alive – suggesting that this is how she would run her errands. While she may have considered it a simple humorous salvo, many did not find it funny and deemed it racist.
Some took issue with the photo appearing to show a white woman taking advantage of a black man by literally using the man as a mount. Ellen dug her hole deeper by tweeting out a defense claiming that racism was not her intention. The tweet has not been deleted, suggesting she does not regret the “joke”.
Making an employee cry
This photo is an example of the importance of context. In 2009, Ellen tweeted that she made one of her employee’s “cry like a baby” on The Ellen Degeneres Show – and rather disgustingly that doing so “felt good”. Given recent allegations, this tweet gives the appearance of extreme insensitivity.
However, upon further research, it turns out this tweet actually refers to Ellen surprising one of her employees with a free Caribbean cruise, to which the recipient shed tears of joy. So we can let the comedian off the hook here for sure.
Quarantine prison
One thing proved by the coronavirus pandemic is that celebrities are horribly out of touch with the common people. The video of public figures singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” is a pristine example of this. Ellen’s tweet about her quarantine experience is yet another template.
When virus quarantine started, Ellen took to Twitter with a video in which she compared her situation to prisoners because she had been wearing the same clothes and “everyone is gay”.
Firstly, Ellen’s situation is nothing remotely like a prison, considering she lives in a huge mansion she can move freely about inside. In comparison, millions are facing unemployment & sickness, struggling to pay bills.
Ellen’s situation is one of the best that anyone could have during this time, so swaths of her audience (and everyone else) took offense. Ellen did take down the video, suggesting she regretted making the insensitive “joke”.
Dakota Johnson’s birthday party
In a tweet containing an interview with Dakota Johnson on The Ellen Degeneres Show, the caption suggested the interview is about Johnson supporting actor Shia LaBeouf during a difficult time.
While that does occur in the video, the first two minutes feature an awkward & confrontational segment in which Ellen questions Johnson on why she wasn’t invited to Johnson’s birthday party. Johnson replies she was invited, but for some reason Ellen didn’t know and didn’t go for unknown reasons.
This interview has been referred to by many who see it as Ellen’s rudeness to a guest. The awkward tone suggests Ellen is trying hard to remain sanguine about this social faux pas. It’s unclear why she would ask Johnson about her party on national television, but Johnson handled it well.
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The Ellen Degeneres Show emphasized its apparent inclusivity, kindness, and positivity, but recent stories suggest otherwise. These tweets seem to suggest that Ellen may be a completely different person behind the scenes of The Ellen Degeneres Show.
