The Most Awkward Ellen DeGeneres Joke From Her Big Return

At least Ellen DeGeneres can still make herself laugh, even if some people aren’t laughing along with her!

During Monday’s season 18 premiere of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the comedian made light of some accusations which have been made against her, like staff being told not to look her in the eye and not to ever chew gum in the office!

The 62-year-old shared with a smile:

“So I’m excited to see, obviously tWitch. I’m excited to see all of my staff and my crew. Hi everybody. Please don’t look me in the eye. Oh, I’m kidding. But I will be passing out gum for everyone. Kidding again.”

Maybe that one particular joke was a little too close to the truth — because the laughter was pretty minimal for that one. Awkward!

Before proceeding to fake cry, Ellen responded:

“Oh, I can laugh now.”

See the video HERE!

While some of the virtual audience and crew were laughing, we can’t speak for those who made allegations against Ellen and her team over the last few months. If anything, it might even come off as mocking!

But as we previously reported, DeGeneres started off the “new chapter” season on a sarcastic note, discussing her “great” summer:

“If you’re watching, because you love me, thank you. If you’re watching it because you don’t love me, welcome. How was everybody’s summer? Good. Yeah, mine was great. Terrific. I’m so happy to be back in the studio. There are a lot of things I want to talk about. I’ve been looking forward to addressing it all directly and unfortunately talking directly to people has been illegal for six months.”

However, her tone quickly turned serious when she addressed the WarnerMedia workplace investigation which took place after multiple allegations against the daytime show being a “toxic” place to work, in addition to sexual harassment claims against three now-fired producers and the accusations against Ellen herself:

“And then there was an investigation. I learned that things happened here that never should have happened. I take that very seriously. And I want to say, I am so sorry to the people who were affected. I know that I’m in a position of privilege and power. I realized that with that comes responsibility and I take responsibility for what happens at my show… We have had a lot of conversations over the last few weeks about the show, our workplace and what we want for the future. We have made the necessary changes. And today we are starting a new chapter.”

Let’s hope this really is a fresh start for her, but we don’t think people will be forgetting about things that quickly…

[Image via TheEllenShow/YouTube.]