Ellen DeGeneres Reveals Why She'll Be Canceled Again - But She's Joking (Mostly)

Ellen DeGeneres talked about being "canceled" — and said it'll probably happen again. (Sort of.)

During a show at the Largo at the Coronet Theater, located in the West Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, DeGeneres joked — while performing in front of an audience — that she got booted from the entertainment industry. (Rolling Stone reported the comedian's quips, as a reporter was on site for the event.)

"Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business," DeGeneres said, apparently with a sarcastic tone. "There's no mean people in show business. ... I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps. Do you know how hard it is to dance up steps? Would a mean person dance up steps? Had I ended my show by saying, 'Go f*** yourself,' people would've been pleasantly surprised."

Degeneres is, of course, riffing on the fact that her talk show, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," she danced a lot and was also apparently terrible to her staff. In the summer of 2020, Buzzfeed News released a report with behind-the-scenes information about alleged mistreatment of employees at "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," who universally proclaimed that DeGeneres' "be kind" mantra was all an elaborate act. The talk show officially ended in 2022. DeGeneres did release an apology, but that didn't change the result.

From there, DeGeneres joked a little more about why she'll be "canceled" in the future — and it has nothing to do with workplace environments, according to her.

During her set at the Largo, Ellen DeGeneres also said that she's been "kicked out" of the industry before, referencing the fact that her sitcom, "Ellen," was canceled in the 1990s after she came out as gay.

"For those of you keeping score, this is the second time I've been kicked out of show business," DeGeneres said. "Eventually they're going to kick me out for a third time because I'm mean, old and gay. It's been such a toll on my ego and my self-esteem. There's such extremes in this business, people either love you and idolize you or they hate you, and those people somehow are louder."

DeGeneres' reason for appearing at the Largo is as part of her current tour, "Ellen's Last Stand... Up Tour," which the comedian told the crowd will eventually be taped for a Netflix original comedy special. Rolling Stone notes that Netflix declined to comment on their article, so at this point, we'll have to take DeGeneres' word for it. It does mark the comedian's "return" to the industry in a way; the outlet notes that, since her talk show, she's mostly remained out of the spotlight except for "Saving the Gorillas: Ellen's Next Adventure," a documentary that ran on the Discovery Channel.

Ellen DeGeneres also hosted a question-and-answer portion of the event, at which point a fan asked if her "cancellation" over her apparent toxic workplace environment was harder than having her sitcom canceled over her sexuality.

"This was a whole different thing," DeGeneres said of the sitcom before addressing the cancellation of her talk show. "This was like, 'What is going on?' It was so hurtful. I couldn't gain perspective. I couldn't do anything to make myself understand that it wasn't personal... I just thought, 'Well this is not the way I wanted to end my career, but this is the way it's ending.'"

As for her 2020 reckoning, DeGeneres said the entire thing was incredibly difficult for her, especially because she loved her work: "Honestly, I'm making jokes about what happened to me but it was devastating, really. I just hated the way the show ended. I love that show so much and I just hated that the last time people would see me is that way."

It's clear that DeGeneres has a lot of feelings about how and why "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" was canceled, and it's anyone's guess as to what she'll do next — or whether or not this special will end up on Netflix as she said.