Comedy can be many things. The more traditional comedian will always assure you that this is just a mechanism to elicit laughter, but others argue that it can also serve to convey a message. To obtain your consentthe special that Ellen DeGeneres guaranteed would be the final point in her turbulent career, arrived on Netflix this week and clearly serves at least two things: to put (her) dots in the i's; And to satisfy some heated gossip about what happened to the presenter and comedian who, in her opinion, was a “show racer”.

Two years have passed since the end The Ellen DeGeneres Showsuccess daytime Which truly made Ellen one of the biggest stars in the United States and therefore in the world. The ending was decided by a controversy very typical of today's world: despite the program's call for kindness (its parting phrase was “be kind”), the presenter was clearly sour and often malicious behind the scenes. Using the word of the moment: it was toxic. A Buzzfeed article exposed the situation, with testimonies from former employees. Shortly thereafter, the once invincible format was cancelled.

Ellen has been gone ever since, and now what happens to many artists who feel canceled: she appears again, with a big contract, on the biggest music service. My neighbor From the world. To obtain your consent It was recorded in August of this year in Minneapolis, at the Orpheum Theater, specifically for Netflix. In 2018, I actually made a special presentation for this platform, with Relatedreturning to stand-up after 15 years focused solely on interviewing celebrities and occasionally scaring kids.

[o trailer de “Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval”:]

To obtain your consentShe confirms that this is her last private show ever, her final farewell to the limelight, at the age of 66. However, if hell is full of good intentions, the world of entertainment is full of postponed goodbyes. Of the bands that say goodbye to the world, here are six tours of comedians that guarantee we'll never see them again, but only until the next check or the next need for an ego massage. Only time will tell if Ellen DeGeneres will be content to spend time with the chickens she talks about so much during this special.

To obtain your consent The film begins with DeGeneres walking backstage as she reviews her career and her controversial collection, with excerpts from video clips, audio recordings, and headlines. As she herself will remember during the show, this was not the first time she had been removed. She became famous through her role in a popular sitcom under her name (aired on ABC between 1994 and 1998), and was a pioneer in coming out as a lesbian (both as a character and in real life). The controversy reached such a point that the series was canceled and DeGeneres was left alone until 2003, when she returned as host of the show. The Ellen DeGeneres Showone of Talk shows The most successful in history.

Once on stage, it doesn't take long for a comedian to talk about the topic everyone wants to hear about. It starts with her thinking, which will be repeated throughout the show, about whether or not she cares what other people think of her (Brake: Yes). She also talks about feeling watched in restaurants, where people are always unsure if she's going to start dancing (one of her iconic images from her old show) or if she's going to be rude to someone. Whether you like the straight-faced type or not prevailingThere is no doubt about one thing: few people are good at this method. Smooth, precise, with very good delivery, Dory here sounds like a fish in water, swimming happily in its natural habitat.

With the audience right by her side, Elaine talks about how to park the car as much as she talks about her mother's dementia. But don't forget the topic that everyone wants to hear and don't hide it. For the vast majority of the show, he has free rein not to explain himself, but to make jokes about the controversy from his point of view. There are well-executed passages about how playing catch with employees could be considered violent or how he didn't consider himself president just because the show had his name on it, just as the clown mascot Ronald McDonald is not the CEO of McDonald's. .

Where the show blurs the picture is at the end, when Elaine succumbs to a serious ending with a healthy dose of self-pity. Suddenly, she's there to explain herself, explaining that she's affectionate, but also demanding and impatient. She describes herself as a “strong woman,” which makes the audience stand up. He gives the usual speech about mental health. Summoning women to the stage. And he says goodbye to comedy calculatingly, not gently – and this after an hour of showing that he has the charisma and talent to give the script another twist.

If this is indeed her last time on stage, Ellen DeGeneres, of course, has the legitimate right to use her however she wants. But it ended up being a bitter, self-justifying farewell that left her defined in history precisely by the controversy she hated. And maybe Ellen (she?) was more than that.