Fellow comedy legends and TV stars Kathy Griffin and Ellen DeGeneres do not like each other.
Griffin says she finds DeGeneres to be “very naturally funny,” seeming to respect the former talk show host for her professional chops. But that’s where the compliments end.
Griffin opened up about the long-standing feud in a video for her YouTube channel, where she went back and looked at their first run-in in the 1990s.
“I have a loathing for her that is epic,” she said in the video, published Wednesday, April 1. “I know a lot of it is jealousy. I get it. She’s way more successful than I’ll ever be.”
Kathy Griffin Undergoes Vocal Cord Surgery Amid Battle With Lung Cancer
“You’re welcome, Ellen,” she continued. “That’s way nicer than anything you’ve ever said about me or ever will.”
The two have had more run-ins over the years, including a dispute over Griffin’s status on The Ellen Degeneres Show and an argument following the death of Joan Rivers.
Keep scrolling for a full breakdown of the Kathy Griffin and Ellen DeGeneres feud.
1996
As Griffin explained, the trouble began when she guest-starred on her future adversary’s 1990s sitcom, Ellen. DeGeneres came into the table read for her episode and recognized Griffin from a commercial she had recently done for Kenmore Stereos.
In the ad, Griffin recited the lyrics to Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music” in an understated, deadpan way. DeGeneres insisted she do it again at the table read.
“It was just off. It wasn’t said with, like, a fun spirit,” Griffin described. “If that was me and I was the star of the show, I just wouldn’t do that to somebody who’s like the day player…I felt like she was saying ‘dance, b****, dance.”
Most Shocking Talk Show Scandals: GMA’s Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, More
Eventually, Griffin recited the lyrics, only the joke didn’t work without her outfit and backup dancers. The rest of the cast and crew, some of whom had not seen the commercial, sat by in an awkward silence.
“You could hear a pin drop because I felt like the rest of the room was just going, ‘I don’t get what’s so special about this,’” she said. “[Ellen] then also kind of looked at me like, ‘what are you doing?’”
“If you know her, that is like who she is,” Griffin concluded. “She never was friendly after that. It was just rough.”
2007
In a March 2007 interview with W Magazine, DeGeneres denied Griffin’s claim that the comedian had been banned from her talk show.
“I know she had a big thing about wanting to be on the show, and we didn’t book her,” she said. “She did a whole thing that I banned her from the show. I didn’t ban her from the show, because first you have to be on the show to be banned.”
She eventually had Griffin on the show later that year, but called her “mean” during her opening monologue. Griffin later said she felt betrayed.
“I was in the dressing room like, ‘S**t! You’re another woman comic, c’mon!’” she told Us Weekly at the time.
Ellen DeGeneres’ Most Controversial Moments Over the Years
2014
DeGeneres never liked comedian Joan Rivers’ brand of comedy, according to Griffin, because she felt the late comic was “too vulgar.” When Rivers died in 2014, Griffin reached out to DeGeneres hoping to get her help for a tribute.
“I just called her and I just said, ‘Look, woman to woman, comic to comic, I think you need to let go of your hatred for Joan Rivers. She’s passed away, just do a f—ing tribute, be cool,’” Griffin explained in a 2018 story for Variety.
When DeGeneres refused, allegedly saying, “there’s a difference between mean and funny,” Griffin fired back.
“That f***ing set me off,” she said. “So we had a fight in which I used inflammatory words like, ‘Look you f***ing untalented hack.’ … You know when you’re fighting with someone and you can kind of laugh at a point? Yeah, not that day.”
Griffin claims she later reached out to DeGeneres to apologize but received no response.
2016
Griffin published her book, Celebrity Run-Ins: My A-Z Index in 2016 and included a story that seemed to be about DeGeneres kicking her out of a dressing room at the Emmys.
“I’m almost positive a certain beloved daytime talk show host once had me kicked out of a backstage dressing room at the Emmy Awards.” she wrote: “I can’t prove it, but this person, who has short blonde hair, has a mean streak that all of Hollywood knows about.”
Griffin later told the Hollywood Reporter that an angry DeGeneres called her after the book was published.
“The only angry call I got was from Ellen DeGeneres, which is, by the way, not fun to get when you’re like, a female comic who loves her and her accomplishments,” she said in a December 2016 interview. “She was extremely upset, and I think she had a thought that she was going to, like, put me in my place, or whatever, but as you know I’m not shut-uppable.”
“We kind of got into it, and I’m not going to lie, after I hung up, I sobbed like a baby,” she admitted. “I admire her and, you know, it was a difficult conversation. But hey, it came with the territory.”
