Chelsea Handler Slams Cancel Culture, Reveals How She’d Change Up ‘Boring’ Late-Night TV Format In ET Canada Special
Chelsea Handler has a lot to say as she sits down with ET Canada’s Keshia Chanté for tonight’s “One-on-One” special.
Chanté chats to the host about wanting to get back into late-night TV, with her having guest-hosted the likes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Daily Show”.
Handler says of how she’d change up the format of such shows, “I think we need more funny,” insisting that the whole thing is pretty “stale” and that it’s usually the same thing for every show; a guest, a second guest and a musical guest.
The comedian continues, “It’s kind of boring, especially with Instagram and social media these days.
“There’s not a lot of mystique or intrigue going on between celebrities, you know what I mean? Everyone’s kind of out there in your face.”
Handler explains how with her first talk show, “Chelsea Lately”, she had “so much fun” with guests commenting on the news of the day, and that she’d go for a “more elevated version” of that, with a lot of comedians as guests.
She continues, “People want to turn the TV on and they want to laugh, and I want to serve that up to them.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Handler is asked whether she fears cancel culture at all, working in comedy.
She responds, “No, because I’m not an idiot. I mean, listen, you’re only going to be cancelled if you’re racist and sexist and you’re discriminating against people and even then you’re not getting cancelled,” adding that plenty of people are doing that.
Handler insists, “I wish everyone would stop complaining about these parameters that have been placed on us. That’s a good thing… it’s not a tall order to not be sexist and not be racist, so if you have a problem with that, then you should really start to question yourself. And I think it forces comedians to be more clever,” suggesting you start with yourself when telling jokes.
“This cancel culture thing… I’m just sick of everyone complaining about it. It would be over if everyone just stopped talking about it.”
Handler then discusses nepotism being a big topic in Hollywood right now, but insists she doesn’t have too many thoughts on it given her family aren’t in showbiz.
She tells Chanté, “I don’t really have any feelings about that. I mean, I don’t have any family members in this business. I read what Kate Hudson said the other day and I kind of agree with it. That will only get you so far if you don’t have the skills to pay the bills, like you’re going to fizzle out.
“If you have two parents that are musicians, you’re probably going to become a musician,” adding that it’s the same with acting.
Handler jokes, “My father was a used car dealer, so that was off the table, I wasn’t falling into that.”
Tune into “One-on-One with Chelsea Handler” airing Friday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Global, and streaming live and on demand on STACKTV and the Global TV App.
