| | "KAAA!" - Ellen frequently uses this made-up word as an enthusiastic response to the audience's applause. Often she will say the word in a high-pitched voice and drag it out for several seconds, or add unique hand gestures. This is often accompanied by the appreciative phrase, "Back at ya!" |
| | "I appreciate it" - Ellen often uses the phrase "I appreciate it" in response to the audience's applause. Also, Ellen frequently thanks the audience by telling them to "take it (the applause) and..."; filling in the end with a phrase such as "mix it up in a Margarita." |
| | Mama chair - DeGeneres's mother Betty DeGeneres regularly attends the show and was frequently featured on camera, but she stopped appearing regularly early in 2006 because she moved. Her chair was designated the Mama chair and special privileges are given to the audience member who sits in it. |
| | Shaking of the head - During the opening monologue, Ellen will frequently make sarcastic comments about her or other people but then shake her head and smile at the audience, making it clear she meant it as a joke. |
| | Breaking news - Sometimes Ellen will be interrupted by "breaking news," which is always reported from in front of one of the rear projection screens. The gag is, however, that the reporter and Ellen seem to be in different locations at the beginning, but are then shown to be only feet from each other in the studio. The reporter also always holds her ear piece and experiences a delay in hearing Ellen. Usually Ellen will end up walking over to the reporter and attempt to talk to her face-to-face, while the reporter ignores her and carries on the charade of a satellite interview. The role of the reporter is played by Karen Kilgariff, the show's head writer. |
| | Fireplace - For a period of time, Ellen featured a small electric fireplace on the table between her and the guest. |
| | Telephone - Ellen uses an old-fashioned, beige telephone to conduct interviews. Sometimes the phone seems to be dialed without Ellen pressing numbers or Ellen will put the phone down and walk around the studio while still talking to the person on the line. |
| | Gladys Hardy - Ellen has called Gladys Hardy, a grandmother from Texas, who originally left Ellen a voicemail message. Gladys offers amusing advice and observations that often send Ellen into a fit of laughter. Gladys became so popular that the show now offers a Gladys T-shirt and Gladys has replaced the show's professional announcers who introduce Ellen at the start of each episode. However, some have begun to question the authenticity of Gladys, leading some to believe she is a prank. [10] |
| | "Keep On Keepin' On!" - Gladys says this when speaking to Ellen. |
| | Drawings - Despite her lack of drawing skills, Ellen will sometimes draw a person or other image on the set using a large easel. At the end of the show, each audience member received a large copy of the drawing. |
| | Am I right, ladies? - Ellen usually says this when talking about men but has also said it on other occasions. |
| | "Kitty" - "Kitty" is an elderly woman who attended an episode taping of Ellen. Before the crew begins to tape, Ellen's DJ will play music for the audience, and they are free to dance. Ellen, on a later episode, displayed video footage of "Kitty" dancing, showing her face changing abruptly and covering her ears when the DJ changed songs. Ellen nicknamed the woman "Kitty" and the clip became a fan favorite. The woman was later identified as Charlotte Pope of Riverside, California and was invited back on the show as a guest. |
| | Audience Dancing - Ellen displays video clips of some of her audience members dancing comedically before the taping of the show, and during commercial breaks. |
| | Best Photos Ever - Ellen shows the best viewer photos, sometimes with a theme based on the episode or season. Sometimes, Ellen's favorite is used as the set's background. |
| | Call Me - Ellen plays messages left on her answering machine for her toll-free number (866-ELK-DOUG). The show originally advertised a standard number to the staff offices, but calls overloaded the phone system, forcing the toll free number to be introduced. It is not clear what the status of the number is, however, because in some repeat episodes the number is not displayed on-screen and Ellen reading the number out loud is edited out. |
| | Celebrity Look-a-Like - Ellen shows photos of viewers who think they look like celebrities. This is also modified to dogs and babies. There is also a different but similar segment where dancing audience members are shown to look like celebrities. |
| | Clip From The Future - Ellen shows us possible future happenings in this segment. |
| | Clip From The Past - Ellen shows us the past happenings in this segment. |
| | Ellen Is That You? - Ellen shows viewer-contributed photos of people they believe resemble her. |
| | If You New York Like I Know York - Ellen quizzes audience members with "New York" questions. Sometimes the game is turned into different titles, like If You Knew Cinco De Mayo Like I Know Cinco De Mayo |
| | Look At You! - Ellen invites a few audience members to display their talents. |
| | Look What I Found at the Drug Store - Ellen shares items found at a drug store. These includes unusual beauty products, household items and toys. During Ellen's "Show on a Plane," the segment became "Look What I Found in the SkyMall," where Ellen shared amusing items from the SkyMall catalog. |
| | My Crazy Dreams - Ellen makes viewer's requests and dreams come true in this segment. In previous years, this segment was called Oh, Yes You Can. |
| | Picture Juxtaposition - Used in "Ellen: The Musical!" where random pictures are superimposed atop one another, timed to music. |
| | Real or No Real - Ellen invites the audience to guess whether an item or a quality of someone is the real deal or fake. |
| | Spanish with Señora Peña - Ellen learns Spanish with a local school Spanish teacher. |
| | The Men of Ellen/Telemundo/heroes (the latter Season 5 on)- Ellen introduces a single man on her show's staff during this segment, usually a man who someone has written to her about and Ellen has read during Write On/Express Yourself. The segment has even featured a gay member of the staff with the words "Ladies Need Not Apply" flashing on the screen. |
| | Viewer Art - Ellen shares artistic work that viewers have sent to the show. Often these include depictions of Ellen in a variety of mediums. |
| | Wednesday's Wunnerful World of Web Videos - Ellen shows a selection of funny videos from the Internet, usually on Wednesday. However, Ellen frequently runs the segment on other days and uses this fact as a joke. |
| | What Are You Doing While You're Watching - Throughout the first two seasons, viewers sent in photos on what they were doing while watching the program, such as knitting or exercising. |
| | Write On/Express Yourself - Ellen reads and responds to viewer e-mail. In Season 5, the name is changed to "Express Yourself". |
| | Audience Humdinger - Audience members hum a song that Ellen or a guest has to guess; this is done two or three times. |
| | Audience Charades - the production crew randomly chooses two or three members of the audience to take part in this segment. |
| | Celebrity - Ellen and/or a guest holds up names of celebrities that he or she has to guess with clues from the other participant. |
| | If You Had To Choose - After the audience is polled on different questions before the show, Ellen asks an audience member what she thinks the most popular response is. |
| | Stranded on a Topical Island - a short game show with pop culture questions. |
| | Musical Chairs - Selected audience members play for a prize. A one-time variation on this substituted bean bag chairs for regular chairs. |
| | Which Came First* - Throughout the second season, audience members guessed what people, places, objects, etc. were discovered first out of two choices. (Ex. When given Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Aguilera (born in 1980) comes before Spears (born in 1981). |
| | Thru The Wall or Take A Fall - audience members watch a video clip and decide whether they will fit through a piece of foam, or take fall into a pit of balls. Other times they have the audience play the game instead of the video clips. |
| | "Backwards Show" - Events and segments unfold in reverse. The "end" of the show now takes place at the beginning and the "beginning" of the show takes place at the end. DeGeneres performs her opening monologue and dance at the end of the actual hour. |
| | "Two Shows In One" - DeGeneres gives us "two" shows in one episode. She wears two different outfits, gives two different monologues, and dances twice. |
| | "Ellen: The Musical" - Similar to a Broadway musical, DeGeneres conducts her usual interviews but the guests eventually break out into song. Guests included Jack Black, teenaged singer-actress Olivia Olson, and Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth. At the end of the hour, Ellen and company sing "Breathe From Your Hoo-Hoo" as their finale. |
| | "Ellen Thanksgiving Special" - From Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. |
| | "I Like It!" - A show (originated in 2007) where, as the title suggests, Ellen has things she likes on the show. On this episode, Ellen first was shown with her back injury. |
| | "Ellen's Show on a Plane" - This show was taped in a Los Angeles airport terminal and on a plane from Los Angeles to New York City. According to Ellen, this is the first time a show has been filmed on an airplane. |
| | "Ellen's After Oscar Special" - Ellen did the show live the day after she hosted the 2007 Academy Awards. Throughout the hour, she presented footage of the event and what happened backstage, during rehearsal, etc. and interviewed the winners via telephone. |