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Ellen DeGeneres<\/strong> wants us to forgive her. That\u2019s the TL;DR version of her new stand-up comedy special, For Your Approval,<\/em> now streaming on Netflix. DeGeneres doesn\u2019t try to disguise this transparent attempt to repair her reputation, which was shattered<\/a> in 2020 by reports that her popular daytime talk show was a toxic workplace, allegedly teeming with racism and sexual harassment. For someone who\u2019d built a brand around kindness, it was a bad look. DeGeneres wasn\u2019t culturally canceled, but her show was<\/a>, after losing<\/a> a sizable segment of its viewers.<\/p>\n As a genre, the apology tour is a risky gambit: Can the penitent manage to hit just the right chord of humility, vulnerability, and hilarity? Humility, at least, is off the list within the first few minutes of For Your Approval.<\/em><\/p>\n The special opens with DeGeneres in her dressing room, looking into the mirror and seeing her career reflected back at her via a youthful appearance on The Tonight Show.<\/em> As she walks through the theater hallway, other clips and voice-overs follow: the episode of her 1990s sitcom in which she came out as a lesbian; Oprah<\/strong> Winfrey<\/strong> talking to her about the historic nature of her role on that show; other media pundits accusing her of going too far; her voice as Dory in Finding Nemo;<\/em> and news of the runaway success of her talk show. Her self-indulgent reverie is interrupted by a barrage of accusations, headlines, and viral tweets: \u201cIs the queen of nice really the queen of mean?\u201d DeGeneres stands there cringing as giant, nasty words (\u201cTOXIC,\u201d \u201cPHONY,\u201d \u201cHYPOCRITE,\u201d \u201cLIAR\u201d) close in around her. It\u2019s a spectacle of contrition, a woman performing penance with a capital P.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, if I look older than when you saw me last, it\u2019s because I\u2019m older than when you saw me last,\u201d she then tells a warmly welcoming audience. \u201cAnd also, I stopped doing Botox and filler. I used to do Botox and filler back when I didn\u2019t care what other people thought of me.\u201d The act is filled with slightly double-edged references to the comedian\u2019s need for adulation, from the title on down. In it, DeGeneres looks much as she always did, thin and spry\u2014though on occasion, when she veers into confessional territory, her mouth is contritely downturned. Or is that just the lack of filler?<\/p>\n Laid-back, relatable comedy has always been DeGeneres\u2019s sweet spot. She quickly falls back into that conversational groove in the new special, wringing light humor out of her car\u2019s lumbar support (\u201cIt\u2019s all any of us knows about the lumbar: It\u2019s got to be supported\u201d) and the shame of being a bad parallel parker. She promises her audience that she will talk about \u201cit,\u201d knowing the scandal is the primary reason some viewers will tune in. And DeGeneres does, sort of. But not before she makes a few teasing false starts.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me catch you up on what\u2019s been going on with me since you saw me last,\u201d she says, building up anticipation with a long pause. \u201cI got chickens!\u201d What follows is a long ode to her birds (they fly, they lay eggs, they dream) before she finally runs out of fowl humor. \u201cLet me see what else I can tell you about that\u2019s been going on,\u201d she says, rummaging in her pocket for her notes. \u201cOh yeah! I got kicked out of show business\u2026cause I\u2019m mean,\u201d she deadpans. \u201cYou can\u2019t be mean and be in show business. No, they\u2019ll kick you out.\u201d She carries on like this for a bit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n