Ellen Degeneres can’t seem to catch a break these days.
When she’s not getting ripped to shreds for her casual friendship with George W. Bush or being accused of secretly mean behavior by her former employees, she’s drawing the ire of the entire world wide web.
Related: People are coming out of the woodwork to accuse Ellen Degeneres of ‘mean’ behavior
While broadcasting her first show from the living room of her $24 million mansion yesterday, Ellen cracked a joke about being in quarantine that didn’t land with, well, anyone.
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“This is like being in jail, is what it is,” she said. “Mostly because I’ve been wearing the same clothes for ten days and everyone in here is gay.”
Related: People are having mixed reactions to learning Ellen Degeneres is secretly ‘mean’
The moment the words escaped from her lips, Ellen seemed to regret saying them, because then she clapped her hands together and awkwardly pretended to laugh: “Ahh, the jokes that I have!”
The jokes, indeed.
Not surprisingly, a backlash quickly ensued…
People are literally dying in jail from COVID-19 while Ellen is out here making jokes about it. https://t.co/Z8cdnMDF5b
— Rebecca Kavanagh (@DrRJKavanagh) April 8, 2020
Petition to stick her in an actual jail after quarantine is lifted. Just for a month or so, so maybe she can learn something.
— Sekhmet (@sekhmetreborn) April 7, 2020
“Hi my name is Ellen and I’m going to make fun of the incarceration of thousands of American citizens during a global pandemic and also imply that only queer folx are jailed and make it seem that being told to stay in my fucking house is like being in a cell in a jail ward.”
— JessPak(she/they) (@HealthPakStream) April 7, 2020
Ellen DeGeneres Comparing Isolation in Her Mansion to “Jail”🤣😂 Guess her designer clothes are her jumpsuit huh. pic.twitter.com/4otWe47QYI
— itsagundam (@GundamIsHere) April 7, 2020
also, nice of her to throw an “everyone in jail is gay/acts gay” joke in there as a cherry on top of her usual garbage
— Whitney McIntosh (@WhitneyM02) April 7, 2020
ellen: being in quarantine is like being in jail
the jail: pic.twitter.com/1Ro9IkdQJx
— grace (@graceisaaac2) April 8, 2020
Can we all just agree jokes about jail/prison are just…bad? Putting humans in cages is not funny. Things that happen there are not funny. And anything you’re going through right now in your apartment (or your fucking mansion, Ellen) is not comparable.
— Shana Knizhnik (@shanakn) April 8, 2020
People so far from being impacted by the criminal justice system love to use it as free labor and punch lines. Fuck you Ellen. Quarantine isn’t jail. Fame isn’t jail. Jail is jail. https://t.co/sgea84nk0q
— gia onomatopoeia (@missgiagiagia) April 7, 2020
me: so yeah idk if im going to be able to get my testosterone prescription and nobody is telling me anything about my finals and how tf do i even get into uni
ellen: my huge mansion is a jail cell
— ً (@qerscus) April 8, 2020
What a great look for Ellen as thousands of people sit in actual jail cells just hoping for the best without soap and basic protections https://t.co/RBytt0Kl4B
— Caroline Darya Framke (@carolineframke) April 7, 2020
Generally speaking, cracking passé jokes about all prisoners being gay or making light of a global pandemic that has, so far, killed almost 85,000 people around the world from the protection of one’s multi-million dollar luxury compound is ill-advised. But everyone messes up sometimes, especially comics, and especially ones who are worth an estimated $330 million.
Ellen has yet to respond to the backlash over the joke.
Related: Ellen says she “misses” her staff after ex-employees accuse her of being secretly “mean”
Vince
Yep. She’s out of touch.
winemaker
Like who in their right mind gives a rats ripe tukus what this rich bitch does other than those people with too much free time on their hands as she’s rubbing it in Americas face she’s toughing this out in her 24 million dollar mansion. Man is this sad excuse for a human being out of touch with the real world. Really the rest of us have lives that have been turned upside down, we’ve lost our jobs worry about the bills while she doles out sympathy and advice. Most of America has to deal with the lock down as best as we can without living in the lap of luxury. And in the words of the ‘view’s joyless behar, “so what, who cares”? Move on nothing important here.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
She may be the Queen Bitch under her sunny facade. However, I have zero sympathy for those bemoaning having to be locked up in prison during this coronavirus apocalypse.
These are the people we need locked up now more than ever. Desperate, they will most likely commit additional crimes…
The people they robbed most still lost treasured possessions. The people they raped are still traumatized, the children they molested will never regain their innocence, and the people they murdered will still be dead.
If you don’t commit a crime, then ya don’t have to do time….
Mattster
People use the term jail and prison interchangeably but they are different. Prisons incarcerate people found guilty of felonies. Jails incarcerate people found guilty of misdemeanors (so not rapists and killers) as well as people awaiting trial that are unable to afford bail. People awaiting trial have not been found guilty of anything yet and are by definition innocent of everything except being poor.
So no, many people “do the time without doing the crime”. And in the case of a pandemic, crammed together virtually without medical care, many will die. This is our “justice system”?
Tempus
She’s clearly not thinking before she speaks as I mean the joke isn’t funny though admittedly the being in jail thing is what some people would say between friends. I mean I can see friends talking and complaining about the situation casually saying something along the lines of “I feel like I’m in jail.” though they aren’t celebrities being broadcast to millions of viewers. That’s kinda the difference as you just don’t say things like that on tv. I’m not saying the above to downplay how serious this is in the least but even though you know it’s for your safety as well as the safety of others being confined within your own home for days on end can be claustrophobic resulting in some insensitive comments. In her case I don’t have any sympathy but for the average joe this comment wouldn’t seem as insensitive to me as it’s human nature to complain.
Jared MacBride
Tone deaf, at best. Elitist, too.
Kieran
No way. I’m not going to waste 6 minutes waiting to hear Ellen tell another unfunny joke.
Cam
What a shock, someone who angrily defends George Bush and tells LGBT people to “Be kind” to somebody who tried to pass a Constitutional amendment against our rights, is “out of touch”.
jjose712
I’m not Ellen’s biggest fan but this is ridiculous. It’s a tone deaf joke, but it’s a joke.
If you are going to be offended everytime she opens her mouth you should skip her show
Glynn
That’s right jjose712…………… Ellen is not the Devil, she is family, she’s on OUR side. Think back, she made a huge difference back in the day and paid the price. She’s still on our side, except now she has the USA hanging on every word she utters. Christ almighty she makes a JOKE and you bunch of snowflakes MELT. Get a f***ing grip. Get a sense of Irony. Get a sense of humor. Aren’t things shitty enough already without you twats looking to dis ELLEN – of all people. But puh-lease, have a lovely day!
ScottOnEarth
I loath Ellen Degeneres but think this is all being blown way out of proportion. It was a stupid joke. That’s what she does. She makes stupid jokes. She clearly wasn’t meaning to be disrespectful to people in prison. Does the world not have more important things to care about right now?
jayceecook
Dang. Ellen and Wendy Williams should just retire and disappear from public life.
gavo92
I told you she was a rude bitch!
BlueRamirez
Of course a lot of people would say, “it’s just a joke”. Rich white people would never understand that their “joke” hurts a lot of people.
Stepr45
Give it a rest. Give her a break. Don’t watch her and shut up. It scares me to think that all of you have so much empty wasted time on your hands!
Jon in Canada
Tone Deaf does not even begin to cover it.
Black Pegasus
I stop liking her the day she invited that homophobic midget Kevin Hart on her show and defended him. She also gave NFL quarterback Drew Brees a pass for associating with anti gay Christian groups. Ellen is a kiss azz elitist who does not care about regular people.
Terrycloth
Obvious she writes her own stuff .she thinks she’s a comedian..watch her Netflix special. Its really bad..
She is so out of touch with the rest of us ..has a chef and 450 million dollars …boo hoo. .bored Ellen…you know what I’m bored with ? Ellen !
Bob LaBlah
Ellen is from Louisiana. If she were smart she would have played it off as “sorry folks, thats just my dad talking”. I have a life of my own so I personally don’t care if this little boy born as a girl sinks or swims. She was the one who wanted all of the attention and now she’s living with just what she asked for, the publics undivided attention.
nitejonboy
Don’t bring Louisiana into this, we don’t have a thing to do with that ignorant bitch and haven’t in years..furthermore, she actually grew up in Texas.
Gandalf The Grey
You know I’ve ignored everything being said about her , but now I just want her to STFU!
justgeo
What happened to the girl? Is she anther Michael Jackson?
Joshooeerr
Ellen has been a tone deaf billionaire for years.
Jack Meoff
Has Ellen’s career jumped the shark?
SiamSean
I do believe that she has lost touch with the real world, but I’m going to give her a pass on THIS one- We’re all stressed out right now with the virus, and the present administration.
DuMaurier
No, I won’t agree that jail/prison jokes are always bad. I don’t like prison rape jokes (except on a Seth MacFarlane show), but this was harmless and funny, and again, inmates are not a demographic (like disadvantaged minorities) who are entitled to tiptoeing sensitivity. Although, as I said, I do think you can cross the line. I just don’t think it happened here.
wikidBSTN
Yeh, not Ellen’s month. She should probably stay far away from “edgy” for a while.
jackscott
I’ve had enough of her!
Creamsicle
1. She’s a comic. They make light of things for a living. That’s literally their job.
2. Sure Ellen is loaded, but entertainment wealth is literally orders of magnitude less than the kind of ultra wealth that you see from the Koch Brothers, Michael Bloomberg, the Sackler family, or any of the people who casually throw around hundreds of millions of dollars to manipulate our political system to their benefit, and then get a tax write-off for doing it.
OhHellNo
Same clothes for 10 days? It’s a bitch when your valet dies. Hey, Len, I bet there are YouTube videos that show you how to put on your pants.
winemaker
Really, does anyone in their right mind gives a rats ass about this ultra rich bitch and what she thinks or says as she’s ‘hunkered in her 24 million dollar mansion”? Yeah right . Like ‘joyless’ joy behar of the ‘view’, another waste of an hour’s time and intelligence said; “so what, who cares”! . Great idea, move on to more important issues rather than stroke this phony’s ego.
nitejonboy
This ignorant bitch hasn’t been funny or relevant ever, why start now ?