A comedian offered donations in exchange for stories about Ellen DeGeneres being 'one of the meanest people alive.' He got 2,000 replies.

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• Stories about the legendary entertainer Ellen DeGeneres being "notoriously one of the meanest people alive" are cropping up online thanks to a viral Twitter thread.

• A comedian named Kevin T. Porter said he would exchange anecdotes about DeGeneres being rude for donations to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and he got nearly 2,000 responses.

• The beauty YouTuber Nikkie de Jager also recently shared her negative experience as a guest on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and some celebrities have made it clear they think DeGeneres is mean.

• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ellen DeGeneres is a widely beloved TV host who helped pave the way for LGBTQ acceptance and ends each episode of her show by reminding her audience to be kind to one another.

But behind the scenes, Hollywood insiders and Los Angeles natives who say they have worked with DeGeneres say she has a reputation for being rude. Those rumors and stories, past and present, are cropping up again thanks to a viral Twitter thread and a YouTuber's shady retelling of her recent experience as a guest on DeGeneres' show.

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Here's what they have to say.

Kevin T. Porter, a comedian, said DeGeneres is "notoriously one of the meanest people alive."

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The resurgence of people wondering whether DeGeneres is as nice as she seems on TV is mostly thanks to Porter, the comedian and podcast host who stirred up online drama with a viral Twitter thread about her character.

Porter crowdsourced "insane stories you've heard about Ellen being mean" in exchange for $2 donations to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. His unique charitable-giving strategy resulted in nearly 2,000 replies, though many were reactions rather than stories.

After the post gained traction, Porter wrotethat it was "now hard to tell which stories are real or not," so he donated $600 (and attached a screenshot of his receipt) for 300 stories people told in his replies.

It's impossible to verify the accuracy of the stories from the tweets alone, and a request for comment sent to an email listed for DeGeneres' representative wasn't immediately returned, but here's what some people had to say.

One former DeGeneres fan attached photographic evidence of the host giving away her hard work.

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"When I was 15 @TheEllenShow was doing a contest of fans making a bust of her and sending it to her," Danielle Acevedo wrote alongside a picture of her painting the DeGeneres replica.

"I worked so hard on this and even wrote her a letter. Weeks later she used it as a prop in a game and gave it away to a random person with $500 attached to the bottom."

Acevedo also attached pictures of the bust being presented on the show's set, with five $100 bills taped to the bottom.

Another comedian said DeGeneres almost got her fired from her serving job over chipped nail polish.

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Chris Farah also tweeted the link to her stand-up set where she told the same story. She said in her tweet that when she was working at a restaurant DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, frequented, she served the two of them — but that DeGeneres complained afterward.

"I worked @RealFoodDaily, served her & Porsha at brunch," Farah wrote. "She wrote a letter to the owner & complained about my chipped nail polish (not that it was on her plate but just that it was on my hand). I had worked till closing the night before & this was next morn, almost got me fired."

Farah also told Insider that she was previously a fan of DeGeneres and had watched both her talk show and her sitcom growing up.

"When my restaurant managers sat me down and asked if I had served Ellen at brunch, I was actually pumped because I thought maybe she'd want to use me for a bit on her show," Farah wrote in an email.

"I'm an actress and comedian and at that time would have loved a 'break.' But alas, it wasn't that, of course. I was just so surprised she'd take time out of her day to be negative to someone who served her, who was obviously on a lower position than her and also probably an artist of some kind. It was just petty and cruel and shortsighted on her part, and for what? To put out negative and harmful energy to others is toxic."

One TV writer listed off six stories he'd heard about DeGeneres.

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A lot of negative stories about DeGeneres had to do with her treatment of her employees and the people she interacts with for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Benjamin Siemon listed several stories he'd heard.

Siemon said that according to his sources, DeGeneres "has a 'sensitive nose'" and makes people chew gum from a bowl outside her office before talking to her. "And if she thinks you smell that day," he said, "you have to go home and shower."

The writer claimed that DeGeneres picks one person on her staff to be mean to "every day."

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Siemon said that someone he knows who worked for DeGeneres said they were told there would be days they'd have to "suck it up" and let her be mean to them.

"A new staff member was told 'every day she picks someone different to really hate. It's not your fault, just suck it up for the day and she'll be mean to someone else the next day. They didn't believe it but it ended up being entirely true," Siemon wrote.

Siemon said he'd heard that along with being overly sensitive to jokes involving animals, DeGeneres refuses to read monologues she doesn't like.

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Siemon tweeted that if DeGeneres doesn't like a monologue someone else wrote for her, she'll "drop it on the floor and say 'I'm not saying one word of this.'"

He also said he'd heard that DeGeneres is overly sensitive to jokes about animals, given her past adherence to a vegan diet and reiterated love for animals.

"She cares about animals which is good but so sensitive," Siemon wrote. "For example if someone tried to show her a funny viral video and way in the distance a barely audible dog is barking she'll scream at you and say 'CAN'T YOU HEAR THAT ANIMAL IS IN DISTRESS?!! WHY DID YOU SHOW ME THIS!?"

In addition to the Twitter thread, a YouTuber who was a recent guest on DeGeneres' show recently shared the negative parts of her experience.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show"

Nikkie de Jager came out as transgender in early 2020 after accumulating more than 13 million YouTube subscribers on her beauty and makeup channel, NikkieTutorials.

De Jager said that when she appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," DeGeneres wasn't as nice as de Jager assumed she would be and didn't say hi before the show. While being interviewed on a Dutch talk show last month, de Jager shared more about her experience with DeGeneres.

"Let's just say there is a huge difference between this show and Ellen DeGeneres, and I'm saying that in favor of this show," she said, according to a translation, adding that it was still an honor to be featured on DeGeneres' show. "It's nice that you say hi before the show. She didn't."

Other celebrities, such as Kathy Griffin, have said DeGeneres was mean to them.

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Griffin has a longstanding feud with DeGeneres — along with many other people. But Griffin called out DeGeneres in one of her books, providing obvious clues about her identity and writing that she was mean.

Apparently that sat so poorly with DeGeneres that she called Griffin and complained, and Griffin told her to her face that she had been mean.

"She was furious," Griffin said during a red-carpet "Access Hollywood" interview.

"'Ellen, this is my experience with you,' I said. 'You've been mean to me. I'm not saying you're a mean person across the board, but you can't, like, take my story away. It's, like, my experience,'" Griffin said.

And Dakota Johnson had an infamous exchange with the host last year when she said DeGeneres lied.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show"

The exchange caused a stir online. After DeGeneres said she didn't receive an invitation to Johnson's birthday party, the actress accused DeGeneres of lying.

"Actually no, that's the not the truth, Ellen. You were invited," Johnson said. "Last time I was on the show, last year, you gave me a bunch of s--- about not inviting you. But I didn't even know you wanted to be invited."

When DeGeneres pushed back, Johnson said, "But I did invite you, and you didn't come."

Since then, other celebrities, such as Mark Ruffalo, Jameela Jamil, and Susan Sarandon, have publicly disagreed with DeGeneres — specifically when the host hung out with President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys football game.

The stories with accusations about DeGeneres' behavior, as well as the way that celebrities have spoken out, are a departure from the positive reputation and vibe of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

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