Ellen DeGeneres regularly interacts with audience members and fans while taping "The Ellen DeGeneres Show ."- The on-screen exchanges have been awkward at times, though.
- Here's a roundup of the most uncomfortable moments between the talk-show host and the show's audience members.
Ellen DeGeneres' playful interactions with audience members have become an integral part of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" since it began airing 17 years ago.
After former guests, employees, and audience members at the show spoke up about their negative experiences with DeGeneres in 2020, people began revisiting the once lighthearted exchanges between fans and the host.
This time, many watched with newfound skepticism about the intention behind the jokes.
From insulting fans' artwork to pulling up humiliating pictures of her audience members, DeGeneres has had numerous questionable moments with her guests.
Here's a roundup of some of the most uncomfortable interactions between the comedian and her studio audience.
She made fun of a portrait that a fan painted of her and Portia de Rossi
During a 2019 segment in which DeGeneres highlighted "bad" gifts, the host mocked a portrait that a fan painted of her and her wife.
"It's called 'Ellen and Portia No. 10.' He took 10 tries but he finally got it. He got it on No. 10," she said.
DeGeneres then suggested that the painting looks more like a "good portrait of Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa" and said she's considering regifting it to them.
"It's really scary too," she said, looking down at the painting. "No matter where you're standing in the room, our chins follow you."
DeGeneres had an awkward interaction with an audience member that drank before her show
Delving into the topic of drunk shopping, the host singled out an audience member named Chelsea that claimed to have decided to get tickets to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" after drinking with friends.
"So, you had to be drunk in order to want to be here?" DeGeneres asked.
Chelsea replied, "Yeah, we had a drink before coming here. Not gonna lie."
DeGeneres then continued the conversation, asking her why she had to be drunk to attend the show. Chelsea then began telling the story of how she got the tickets, and DeGeneres cut her off and said, "I know the process."
After a bit more back and forth, DeGeneres said, "I'm done with you, Chelsea. Sit down."
DeGeneres remarked that an audience member was 'not rich' while going through her bag
The host sifted through an audience member's bag during a 2019 episode of the show, counting through her bills.
"So this is all you have right now in cash?" DeGeneres asked her, adding, "Alright, well that's not rich."
The audience member replied, "No, I don't fall in that category."
Granted, DeGeneres did surprise the woman by gifting her $1,000 in the moments that followed. The woman was thrilled and asked the host if she could have another hug.
"No, that's all," DeGeneres said, stuffing the cash in her purse and adding, "There, you're rich now."
She called out an audience member for taking more than one souvenir and made her sit in 'Ellen Jail'
DeGeneres used hidden cameras to make sure that the audience members only took one souvenir, as instructed. However, she called out one woman named Nancy for taking several items, replaying the footage for the entire audience.
Nancy explained that she grabbed extra items for her sister, who wasn't able to attend the show.
"A lot of people's sisters couldn't come," DeGeneres said, telling the audience that Nancy seemed like a person that would take an entire bowl of candy while trick-or-treating on Halloween.
She continued, "I'm sorry. That's embarrassing and everything, but let that be a lesson to you. You think nobody is watching you and you just need to be a good person just because you want to be a good person."
DeGeneres then ordered Nancy to go sit in "Ellen Jail," a trek that required her to walk across the entire room.
DeGeneres labeled her audience members as 'idiots'
Administering the "Idiot Test" to her audience, DeGeneres asked various people to solve riddles.
If they gave her the right answer, they could sit down. If they didn't, DeGeneres told them they were an "idiot" and ordered them to relocate to the "idiot section."
She laughed at a fan's tattoo tribute to her
DeGeneres pulled up a series of "bad paid-for tattoos" on a 2019 episode of her show, eventually landing on a fan's portrait of the talk-show host tattooed on their arm.
"Ellen, you're my hero, so I got a huge tattoo of you on my arm," the fan wrote her.
DeGeneres pulled up a photo of the ink, which shows the comedian wearing "Finding Nemo" glasses with blue hair. The audience burst out laughing.
"I have no words for that one," she said.
DeGeneres asked people to send her embarrassing photos of the audience members
The host roasted audience members during a segment called "I Thought You Were My Friend."
"One of my favorite things to do on this show is go through your Facebook profiles. And I like to show embarrassing photos of you on national television," she said.
Instead of finding the pictures herself, she asked the audience members' friends to submit the unflattering photos.
After making it sound like she was going to help an audience member pay for college, DeGeneres revealed she was giving her a computer
A fan of the show wrote to DeGeneres to tell her about the measures her daughter, who sat in the audience, has gone to pay for college — like donating blood every week for six months to pay for her computer.
"I'm not in a position to help her financially, but I'm hoping maybe you can," the mother wrote, leading DeGeneres to look up and respond, "Well, I sure can."
DeGeneres then called the woman up to the stage and chatted about the high cost of college.
"I talked to my friends at Shutterfly, and they want to help pay," DeGeneres said before a producer said, "No."
He then went up to DeGeneres and whispered in her ear. She pivoted to the audience and said, "So, this is awkward. We're going to give you a computer."
The woman noted that she already has a computer.
"It's a nice computer," DeGeneres told her shortly before the holiday music began playing to cut off the segment.
DeGeneres was impatient with a guest's translator
When Taiwanese ukulele prodigy Feng E visited the show in 2019, he brought a translator to communicate DeGeneres' questions from English to Mandarin.
As they chatted about school and music, DeGeneres asked the child what other instruments he wanted to learn.
The translator began repeating the question in Mandarin until the host cut her off and said, "Just one question. Just, 'What else does he want...' I don't know what you're telling him but just ask him what I'm saying."
The young woman then apologized and quickly asked Feng E the question.
"See? That was that short," DeGeneres told her.
The comedian then got confused when Feng E said he wanted to learn to play "fingerstyle guitar" and asked the translator what it was.
She shrugged, leading DeGeneres to say, "Well, ask him. Don't look at me and say, 'I don't know.' We're not having a conversation. I'm asking him, 'What is a fingerstyle guitar?'"