MovieChat Forums > Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval (2024) Discussion > Just seen this

Just seen this

posted 4 months ago by roxi1st (55)
4 replies | jump to latest

Since I'm not from the US I pretty much watched Ellen on youtube for years and her timing is unique and her jokes are so funny cause the punchline is always unexpected. I watched her other standups too. This one stands out in that she's talking openly about the scandal that errupted in the Ellen Show, about aging, about her mom, about her traumas even, all intertwined with chicken tales and bits that soften the standup. The pace is overall slower than the rest of her specials and it feels lukewarm and bittersweet, but it offers closure and I feel she needed that and in a way we, her audience, needed that too.

[–] AngelThMan (148) 3 months ago

It wasn't funny enough. She had been funny in previous specials, even hilarious. But she seemed to phone this one in.

[–] roxi1st (55) a month ago

Yes. Because those were built as comedy shows. Because she was trying to make it as a comedic stand up and have a career. This felt like something personal, done for herself, in order for her to have closure. Thats my theory anyway. The show is called For your approval. Meaning everything she's done up til that point was for our approval, for us to laugh, for us to appreciate her. She addressed this in the special. So it wasnt Ellen trying to be funny for our approval this time. It was her explaining something to the public in her own comedic way and the public not getting it because it wasnt funny. And it wasnt funny cause it wasnt built to be funny, it was built to bring closure. You know as well as I do that if Ellen wants to build something to be funny she does it with excellence.

[–] AngelThMan (148) a month ago

Actually it takes a lot of work for comedians to build one hour of material. People think comedians can just wing it and be funny. Not the case. It takes months and even years to perfect an act. She just rushed this. And I guess she had her reasons and wanted to get her point of view out there as soon as possible, but the price was a mediocre set.

[–] roxi1st (55) a month ago

What I said and what you replied seem to be 2 different conversations.
Let me rephrase.

This show is named "For your approval".
She even says during the show that her entire career, whatever she's done, the ellen show, stand-up, movies, tv shows, she has done for people's approval. She also says during the show that she doesnt care anymore (about people's approval). And she mentions therapy.

I suspect that this is some therapy thing she's doing for herself to get closure with what happened. And she added in between a few chicken jokes and sold it to netflix as a comedy show. But it isnt. It's some kind of public interview on a stage, intertwined with unfunny chicken jokes. She knows whats funny and what isnt. Her 40 year career has taught her that. If she wanted to spin mindless jokes she couldve. And she wouldnt have mentioned therapy, her mom, the be kind thing, and doing things for the audience's approval.