“I used to say that I didn’t care what other people thought of me, and I realise now looking back, I said that at the height of my popularity,” American comedian Ellen DeGeneres says in the opening sequence of her new Netflix comedy special. If the audience’s cheering in reply is any measure, they’re in on the gag.

But the 66-year-old comedian’s part-set-the-record-straight, part-mea culpa is also an uncomfortable exercise in reputation repair, a “final tour” that tries to lay down a final account of the highs and, since 2020, the lows of a career that took DeGeneres from sitcom star to talk show queen.

When Hollywood takes something to market to court votes for Oscars or Emmy awards, it crowns it in the gentlest of requests: “For Your Consideration,” the invitation says. This 70-minute Netflix comedy special goes one step further in its pursuit of a positive outcome, with the less-subtle subtitle “For Your Approval”.

To DeGeneres’ credit, the special does not shy away from the scandal that engulfed her in the final two years of her show’s 19-year run. The opening sequence pulls quotes from TV reports over the years: Ellen “praised for delivering a daily dose of joy”, gushes one presenter, before another offers, in an ominous tone, “is the queen of nice really the queen of mean?”

“A few years ago, I started ending my show by saying ‘be kind to one another’,” DeGeneres says, when she finally takes the stage. “Here’s the downside. I can never do anything unkind now, ever.” Well, that’s true. Though you’d think in such a perfect (privileged) world, none of us would surely complain about the lack of freedom to be mean.

Indeed in Hollywood, the path to reputation repair has been paved for decades with the biggest names: Robert Downey Jr, who spent most of the ’90s evading drug charges or jail, only to now lead the $US29 billion ($42.6 billion) Marvel franchise, and Winona Ryder, who went from shoplifting to Stranger Things and this year’s box office favourite, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Martha Stewart went to prison, and then the Paris Olympics. David Letterman ended his talk show career with headlines around infidelity and blackmail. Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch. And if you have an hour, just Google Alec Baldwin. So what, exactly, is the problem with Ellen DeGeneres?

If you don’t know who DeGeneres is, or just vaguely remember her downfall, here’s the recap: in 2020, at the height of the “daily dose of joy” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 10 former employees accused the host of presiding over a “toxic” on-set atmosphere of “racism, fear and intimidation”.