Ellen Degeneres; and why she's a comic genius

     It's hard to describe why Ellen is so funny.  Maybe it's because she seems like a real person, someone you could just go up to on the street and talk too, or because she is just a really good public speaker.  She is both of those, but after watching one of her old stand ups, I realized its also because that she is able to weave social commentary into a very well planed out sketch, while making it hilarious, and almost like she's just making it up on the spot.

 Somewhere in the middle of her performance "The Beginning", she was talking about how awkward it is when someone is talking to you and you realized you've drifted off and weren't really listening, and they've finished talking and expecting you to say something-

"Do what I do if I can help you out I'm pleased to do it, because I know its an awkward situation for all of us.  I always say something about Gloria Estefan.  I'm telling you it works if you commit to it she can work into any conversation.  They could be like
'What's that got to do with copper pluming?' and you're like
'Well Gloria Estefan is the copper pluming of the music industry is all, I mean she's beautiful, durable, reliable, indestructible, look how she came back after that bus accident, are you going to debate me on this?'"        

     By itself I found that pretty funny, but it wasn't until the very end, after many other jokes and stories, when she was describing her talk with god, who she casually describes as a 47 year old beautiful black women, (only another reason why I love Ellen) that I realized she's a comic genius.

"'I have to say God I'm sorry, I am so sorry that we're killing all of the animals, I'm so sorry that we are chopping down all the trees, I am sorry that we're filled with hate and not love, I'm sorry that we call each other names and judge each other, I'm sorry that we go to war and kill each other, I'm sorry'
And she was silent for a few seconds and then she looked at me and she said
'Have you seen Gloria Estefan's hair lately?'"        

The Beginning Part 1 

Her show it split into seven sections on Youtube, and I didn't want to put all seven, and as I described  before the joke I was talking about in split between sections, so even though the show isn't in full swing until later, I decided to just put section one.