Ellen DeGeneres mocking Sofia Vergara’s accent on live TV is still disturbing to watch years later
Ellen DeGeneres is getting called out for her past actions! Not long ago, a video montage of the veteran talk show host making fun of the 'Modern Family' alum Sofia Vergara's accent popped up on the internet. The clip showed DeGeneres teaching a few English words to Vergara. “So, I’ve been doing a Spanish word of the day. So I thought I would teach you an English word," DeGeneres told Vergara, according to Yahoo. In her response, Vergara replied, "Ok I know English very well."
Soon after, DeGeneres went on to say, "So your English word and you'll say the word and then, you'll say what it means, and it's flabbergasted." Vergara repeated the word and DeGeneres quipped, "That's right." On the other hand, Vergara quipped, "I had said that word before. You see my American English." Then, DeGeneres questioned Vergara, "What about discombobulated?" to which she replied, "Wait, say it again. No, no, no say, it again."
DeGeneres chimed in, "I knew it was a better one and he tells her to say flabbergasted. Discombobulated." Then, Vergara failed to say the word correctly and the 67-year-old comedian burst into laughter. Despite several attempts, Vergara couldn't get the right pronunciation of the word. A frustrated Vergara told Ellen, "That's not even a word. You're doing it to ruin my reputation." In her defense, DeGeneres explained, "It is a word and it means confused or disorganized. Discombobulated." Later on, DeGeneres jokingly took a dig at Vergara's accent and said, “You’ve been on this show for 10 years and your accent has gotten worse. How is that possible?” In her response, Vergara said, "Your English has gotten better, I have to say...I’m understanding you.”
After the episode was released on YouTube, many viewers slammed DeGeneres for her racist comments. One social media user wrote, "So now that Ellen has been exposed, can we talk about the racism in this? Teach Sofia an English word of the day? You can even see it in Sofia’s expression when she says okay, I speak English but I’ll play along ." Another one echoed the same sentiments by saying, "So true! And Sofia knows English and Spanish and she’s trying to make her look less intelligent." One person quipped, "I don't know if it's racist, necessarily, but it certainly is a bit insulting to teach someone a language they already know. Americans are obsessed with where people are from. You watch interviews and even if someone is from Canada it's almost always the first question asked by the interviewer." One fan pointed out, "She’s done a lot of mean things for sure! Publicly humiliating anyone isn’t okay. I swear she enjoyed it."
In another clip, DeGeneres made fun of Vergara's butt. During an episode of 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show,' DeGeneres even dressed up as Vergara for Halloween. Over the years, DeGeneres and Vergara have become good friends and even worked together in commercials for renowned brands such as CoverGirl and Pepsi. In January 2020, DeGeneres was accused of fostering a toxic work environment on her talk show. At that point, Vergara shut down the claims that DeGeneres was being racist towards her on the program. As per Chicago Tribune, Vergara shared, “Two comedians having fun with each other to entertain, I was never a victim, guys, I was always in on the joke.”