For Your Approval

The tension of watching an incredibly famous person try to laugh off a very public reputational freefall is what makes the hour interesting. The performance functions less as a traditional comedy set and more as a defensive public relations campaign. She juxtaposes lighthearted material about keeping backyard chickens, parallel parking under pressure, and the nuisance of modern car technology with a highly stage-managed response to the toxic-workplace allegations that ended her daytime talk show. She jokes about no longer getting Botox because she supposedly stopped caring about public opinion, and recounts workplace games of tag to convince the room that her set was actually a fun place to work.

Recorded at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis in August 2024, the special was released on Netflix in September of that year. At this point in her career, she had spent two years away from the public eye following the 2022 finale of her daytime show, and she announced this performance would be her final stand-up special. She frames her recent fall from grace alongside her 1997 coming-out story, suggesting both instances were the result of a fickle public rather than genuine misconduct. Critics and audiences largely panned the hour, pointing to her framing of herself as a victim and the sycophantic crowd that applauded her every defense.