I’ve loved stand up comedians from the first  time I saw Mort Sahl at Mister Kelly’s in Chicago,  in  1958.  Fresh out of Purdue, living in the big city, I was enthralled with his social satire and improvised monologues.   It was the heyday of comics like Jonathan Winters, Dick Gregory, and of course, late night talk show host Johnny Carson.  But funny people aren’t always nice to be around offstage.  Winters was bi polar. Carson was known to be a mean, nasty guy after a few drinks.  Let’s face it, there’s a dark side to comedy.   Psychologists speculate that comedy is born out of an effort to cope with tragedy.  So, is Ellen Degeneres really the Queen of Mean?  Or, is she just like a lot of other talented comedians who carry around a few emotional problems.

Carrie Fisher was known in high school as a “mean girl.”  She was also very funny, with a sharp wit and one liners that kept every one in stitches.  Unfortunately, she was also a drug addict who died of an overdose at the age of 60.  Robin Williams battled anxiety and struggled with alcoholism, and committed suicide by hanging at the age of 63.

According to an Oxford University psychologist, “The creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis – both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,”   In other words, it’s thought that there’s some kind of link between creativity and mental instability.

Let’s go back to Ellen.  The first time I saw her act was at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., about 20 years ago.   It was a sell out crowd.  Her brand of stand up comedy was unique, because she wasn’t vulgar, didn’t use four letter words.  How could anyone manage to be that funny, and still come across as wholesome and kind?  Somehow she pulled it off. She was younger and cuter then. We didn’t know she had such big ears because she had a fluffy haircut that covered them.  She was a gay woman who came across as very sweet and feminine.  Consequently, everyone loved her.

If you didn’t know better, you would have said she came from a normal,stable family.  But that wasn’t true.  Her folks got divorced when she was a teenager, and she was yanked out of school in New Orleans when her mom remarried.  and moved to Atlanta, Texas.  According to her biography, she was molested by her step dad before moving back to New Orleans.  My stepson was living there then, and hung out with some people she knew.  She was extremely popular.  We all love someone who can make us laugh, don’t we?

There’s been a story in the news about Ellen’s former bodyguard at the 2014 Oscars.   He said she was “cold” and “demeaning.”  Wait a minute.  She’s hosting the Oscars, planning a pizza party for the stars.  She’s got a few things on her mind. She paid big bucks to hire this guy.  Why should she lose her concentration by stopping to make conversation with a person whom she doesn’t know, and will never see again?

Ellen may be mean in private, (according to some news reports)   but I’ll take that to comics like Kathy Griffin, who held up a bloody effigy of the USA president.  Other female comedians can’t complete a sentence without a four letter word.   I’m sorry if Ellen doesn’t treat her employees well, because disagreeable people are usually unhappy.  But is Ellen Degeneres truly the Queen of Mean?  I don’t think so.