Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval

Instead of finalizing her career as a comic with something irreverent or groundbreaking, she chose a stale recounting of the last 2 year's headlines. Nothing special & no way to end your groundbreaking career. Ellen has always leaned into her dry approach to comedy but I don't think it suited her here. Yes, we know people called you mean, and if that's not true, that's terrible. One retelling would have sufficed. Ellen carved her own path & she doesn't technically need comedy like most standups, but I sure wish she had gone out with a bang since this is her last special.

It seems she needed this adoration more than she needed the laughs.

I have no idea what the idea behind this program was? Did Ellen want to show that she had some self-distance and was able to face what had happened to her career? Admit to certain things and take responsibility for them? If so, it has failed because it is clearly superficial and insincere. There is still a tone there that suggests that she had to suffer all this because of her gender and s. Orientation.

The comedy aspect itself is even worse. The jokes are flat and completely unfunny. This is a completely amateur level. This is only emphasized by the reaction of the audience, which had to be carefully selected from among her fans, because their hysterical reaction to her every joke, even the weakest, seems simply artificial and far-fetched to those watching at home. And I watched it with three other people. One of them, a woman, used to be very fond of Ellen. We all watched it with straight faces almost the entire time. A slight smile may have crossed our faces a few times. Not good for such a long performance. Not good. Not good at all.

Ellen wanted to leave with great pomp, but it turned out to be a dud. Maybe because of her limited comedic skills? Or maybe it's because she can't be truly honest, either with herself or with the audience. At one point he says that "if you tell someone that all their stories should be 50% shorter, you lose 100% of their friendship." I think she could apply this principle of brevity to her own jokes as well. Instead of repeating the same thing over and over again.

Ellen switches between observational comedy and show business comedy. Her observations are the same topics you've heard other comedians talk about before: driving annoyances, restaurant annoyances. Yawn. It plays like a poor man's Seinfeld. Her show business material is her defending herself against people calling her mean by saying she's only human. What a cop out. She constantly reminds the audience that she's gay to gain sympathy and hide her narcissism. She also drags bits out too long. We don't need 10 minutes of pigeon material. If this is her final special, she went out with a whimper. Her final message to the audience is that she doesn't care what they think. We know; she's been telling that to her staff for years. Ellen exits the stage like an old horse being put out to pasture. A sad end to a long career.

I have to admit, I miss seeing Ellen on television. I don't know how serious the case against her is or whether it's entirely true. I quite enjoy her stand-up comedy. But what I dislike the most is the audience's reaction. It's exaggerated and seems fake. They laugh at many parts that aren't funny. It's as if they are watching a sitcom where someone holds up a sign telling the audience when to laugh. I think people should give her a chance. She deserves it. Sometime people only think about her bad behavior but forget about her goodness during her show. She donated and help so many people. I hope she will do another tv show.

Yes, the show was entertaining but it was not much of a stand up comedy show. It was more like a humorous TED Talk. I actually stopped it and checked to see if it WAS a TED Talk.

I did find that the audience responded more with cheers and clapping than they did with laughter. It almost seemed like they were wanting to encourage her and make her feel better. Thankfully you are able to skip past the long winded standing ovations because, as others have commented, it did get to be pretty annoying.

That being said...I didn't mind her stories and I was able to do other things while I was listening to her talk.