Greg Fitzsimmons is setting the record straight on his former boss.<\/p>\n
The comedian, 59, worked on the first two years of \u201cThe Ellen DeGeneres Show,\u201d which debuted in 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was rough,\u201d Fitzsimmons admitted about the show\u2019s host, Ellen DeGeneres, while on the \u201cWe Might Be Drunk\u201d podcast<\/a> Tuesday. \u201cShe was the C-word.\u201d <\/p>\n Greg Fitzsimmons (right) reveals what it was like to work for Ellen DeGeneres. @WeMightBeDrunkPod<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, I wanted to write for her because I really do think she\u2019s one of the great comics,\u201d he elaborated. \u201cShe was a great comic. Then, the show comes out and I get approached by the head writer and turns out I am good friends with the show runner. So I write a couple pages of jokes and I get hired.\u201d<\/p>\n Fitzsimmons recalled that, at first, the atmosphere was a good time. <\/p>\n The comedian worked on the first two years of \u201cThe Ellen DeGeneres Show,\u201d which debuted in 2003. @WeMightBeDrunkPod<\/p>\n \u201cWe were there for like a month before the show launched, figuring out the segments and all that stuff, and it was like fun, goofy, pranks. A ping-pong table and it was all good energy,\u201d he recounted. <\/p>\n \u201cThe show was good, and I knew things were going to go wrong because I was a producer, writer, and then they asked me to do the audience warm-up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n DeGeneres, 67, had said no to every other warmup guy in Los Angeles, which left the spot open for Fitzsimmons to take.<\/p>\n \u201cShe said, \u2018Greg, you\u2019re going to do it,’\u201d the actor added. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be the warmup guy on a daytime talk show,\u2019 and they were like, \u2018Well it\u2019s an extra four grand a week and it\u2019s 10 minutes a day.’\u201d<\/p>\n Ellen Degeneres during Season 3 of her talk show. \u00a9Warner Bros\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n So, Fitzsimmons agreed to the role.<\/p>\n He called the crowd a \u201cbunch of closeted mid-western housewives who loved her,\u201d so instead of warming them up, he had to warm them down.<\/p>\n Fitzsimmons then had the audience do the wave whenever he said the word banana.<\/p>\n \u201cSo then she comes out to do the monologue, but what I had forgotten was that the word banana was in the monologue,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n \u201cNow, she hasn\u2019t seen the warmup. So she says banana, and the crowd does the wave, and she\u2019s a control freak, so this is like the worst thing that could ever happen. She stops and goes \u2018Okay, that\u2019s weird. Whatever that was, don\u2019t do that,’\u201d he said. <\/p>\n The show\u2019s end came on the heels of 2020 allegations of a toxic work environment. Michael Rozman\/Warner Bros.<\/p>\n However, Fitzsimmons shared that when DeGeneres said banana again, the crowd repeated the wave.<\/p>\n \u201cShe said \u2018don\u2019t do it.\u2019 They do it again. Finally, I just go up on stage and I explain to her what happened. And she was f\u2013king seething,\u201d Fitzsimmons said. <\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018Alright, I\u2019m getting fired for that.\u2019 And I didn\u2019t, but then everything got weird and we started winning Emmys. I won four Emmys on the show, but that made things bad,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n According to the writer, once the series started taking home trophies, DeGeneres became \u201cmean because she was back on top.\u201d<\/p>\n DeGeneres during a taping of \u201cThe Ellen DeGeneres Show\u201d at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, on April 25, 2022. AP<\/p>\n One alleged moment in particular stuck with Fitzsimmons.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you didn\u2019t pitch in her wheelhouse, then she looked at you like you had just f\u2013king stabbed her puppy,\u201d he added. \u201cThen there was this process of pushing people out of the circle. You want to be in the circle because there is a lot of fear going on. So you\u2019re in or out.\u201d<\/p>\n For Fitzsimmons, it didn\u2019t \u201creally bother me that much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had written on a lot of shows before, and I knew what it was like to have tough bosses. I wrote for Bill Maher. I was tough enough, but then there were these first-time writers who cried. It was a lot of crying always,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n The Post reached out to DeGeneres\u2019 rep for comment.<\/p>\n According to the writer, once the show started taking home trophies, DeGeneres became \u201cmean because she was back on top.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ellen DeGeneres Show\u201d ran for 19 seasons from 2003 to 2022. Its end came on the heels of 2020 allegations of a toxic work environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n DeGeneres addressed the accusations during the opening monologue on the first episode of her 18th season. She issued an on-air apology and called herself \u201ca work in progress\u201d before adding she is \u201cespecially working on the impatience thing.\u201d<\/p>\n DeGeneres finished her last stand-up tour in 2024 and has since retired. <\/p>\n In November, the host\u00a0and\u00a0her wife, Portia de Rossi,\u00a0relocated to the UK<\/a> after\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s presidential win.<\/p>\n Jennifer Aniston was the final guest on \u201cThe Ellen DeGeneres Show.\u201d MICHAEL ROZMAN\/WARNER BROS.<\/p>\n Due to the comedian stepping out of the spotlight, Fitzsimmons isn\u2019t afraid to talk about his time on the series.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s out of the country,\u201d he teased. \u201cI don\u2019t really care.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Fitzsimmons never ran into DeGeneres again after working on the talk show.<\/p>\n Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi hold hands while out to lunch in London. BACKGRID<\/p>\n \u201cMy next job after Ellen was I went to \u2018The Man Show\u2019 and she heard I was on \u2018The Man Show\u2019 and apparently she couldn\u2019t stop laughing,\u201d he elaborated. \u201cAnd then I hosted the Porn Awards and they were in Vegas doing a show and she saw my face up on a billboard for the Porn Awards and she just thought it was so f\u2013king funny.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think she really knew me \u2013 and that was me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In November, DeGeneres was spotted rocking brunette hair in a video shared by a local pub<\/a> in Burford, England, called The Farmer\u2019s Dog. In the clip, she sat smiling next to her wife, 52.<\/p>\n Ellen DeGeneres sports brown hair. BACKGRID<\/p>\n The footage surfaced after insiders\u00a0told The Wrap<\/a> that DeGeneres and de Rossi moved to the UK and were gearing up to put their Montecito, California, mansion on the market in an effort to start a new life abroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n The source claimed that the couple, who tied the knot in 2008, will likely \u201cnever\u201d return to the US on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n Ellen DeGeneres walking through London\u2019s Bond Street. BACKGRID<\/p>\n Despite enjoying her new life in the English countryside, DeGeneres admitted last month that there are many things she misses about hosting her own show<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I wish it did, because I would do the same thing here,\u201d she told broadcaster Richard Bacon,\u00a0per the BBC<\/a>. \u00a0\u201cI would love to do that again, but I just feel like people are watching on their phones, or people aren\u2019t really paying attention as much to televisions, because we\u2019re so inundated with information and entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n These days, DeGeneres is \u201cvery carefully\u201d taking her time to decide on her next career move.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to have fun, I want to do something,\u201d she said. \u201cI do like my chickens, but I\u2019m a little bit bored.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t