People Chelsea Handler Can't Stand
This feature contains allegations of sexual misconduct.
Chelsea Handler once declared that her three passions in life were reading books, smoking pot, and skiing (via TikTok), but if she were to extend that list, dishing on celebrities would easily weasel its way into the top five. It's a comedic skill that comes easily to her. That was evidenced by her provocative skewering of big-name Hollywood types like the Kardashians and Ryan Seacrest on her old "Chelsea Lately" talk show that ran for eight seasons on E! until 2014. Since then, Handler's rapier repertoire has expanded into political circles, which has made her more controversial than ever.
In some circles, her crass volleys have cost her dearly in terms of credibility and her life behind the scenes. Handler created an adversary out of Joan Rivers after dismissing the veteran comedian's legacy on a Howard Stern episode, per Page Six. And she temporarily wrecked a friendship with Jennifer Aniston who accused Handler of speaking behind the backs of herself and her then-husband Justin Teroux, who was rumored to have despised the comedian, per Daily Mail. But overall, as Handler's enemies list continues to grow, so does her popularity. That might be the result of her attempts to write more profound material. "My stand-up now always has meaning," she told Variety. "There's always a message that I'm not just telling jokes about my p***y, you know what I mean?" Indeed, here are some of Handler's most noteworthy targets.
Chelsea Handler belittled Lauren Boebert
Chelsea Handler primarily sprays most of her jocular venom at men, although she's also taken swipes at women who irritate her. And one such target has been Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a MAGA supporter with theocratic leanings who caught the comedian's ire after making a bold proclamation during a 2022 church gathering in Colorado. "The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church," Boebert had said. "That is not how our founding fathers intended it, and I'm tired of this separation of church and state junk that's not in the Constitution."
Handler didn't hold back while guest-hosting an episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live," sniping in response, "I tend to be skeptical about getting Constitutional law advice from a human tramp stamp." Proving she did her homework, the guest host paraphrased the Constitution's First Amendment before surmising some of the more sexist rules to be found within it, retorting, "Unless you have a d***, the Founding Fathers don't care what you have to say." Handler then brought up a 2004 allegation that Boebert's husband had exposed himself to a 17-year-old bartender in a bowling alley, for which he served jail time (she claimed the incident was a misunderstanding, per Insider).
During an appearance on "The View" a few months later, Handler claimed that sensationalist female politicians like Boebert were fair game. "Those are the kinds of women that you can go after. And I intend to do it because they need to be called out," she said.
She dismissed Marjorie Taylor Greene as 'Capitol Storming Barbie'
It's pretty well established that Chelsea Handler has no regard for Republicans, for whom she has a ravenous appetite to mercilessly devour. One such morsel is Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been accused of making a career out of parading her version of Trumpian dogma around Capitol Hill, spreading conspiracy theories, and browbeating anyone even slightly left of her extremist values. During one stint subbing at "The Daily Show," Greene turned out to be Handler's main entree on the night after the State of the Union address, which saw the politician heckling President Joe Biden. "When are they going to put this woman on 'Real Housewives of Atlanta?'" Handler quipped.
On another episode of "The Daily Show," the comedian again attacked "Capitol Storming Barbie" when the politician lamented that her job only pays her $174,000 a year. "Becoming a member of Congress has made my life miserable," Greene complained on an episode of "The Glenn Greenwald Podcast" (via The Young Turks). Additionally, she claimed that she was regularly approached by people with crazy theories about her that they had found online. After sharpening her incisors, Handler went in for the kill. "Well, if that's not the pot calling the kettle QAnon," Handler replied. "This woman thought 9-11 was a hoax, that the Clintons killed JFK Jr., and that Jews are in charge of space lasers. But, please don't come at her with some crazy ideas ― she might believe them."
Russell Brand was her worst guest on Chelsea Lately
Anyone who tuned into "Chelsea Lately" might recall how the talk show would often vault itself beyond PG territory. And given the exchanges between Chelsea Handler and her guests, one might assume a few disconcerting issues would crop up. However, in a 2014 interview, the comedian claimed she had a problem with just one guest. ”The only person who was a pain in the a** was Russell Brand," she said to Grazia in 2014 (per Digital Spy). "I would never want him back."
Handler claimed that Brand had refused to leave his backstage confines and hit the set unless he had already downed three espressos. This apparently played havoc with the production's schedule to ensure the show would run on time. That was back in 2012 when the British comedian had made a name for himself in movies like "Get Him To the Greek" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and by divorcing singer Katy Perry two years earlier.
The episode in question had all the sexual innuendos that "Chelsea Lately" usually delivered, but it didn't appear that she and her guest were having any fun. Handler was almost sighing when introducing Brand, whose tell-all tome, "My Booky Wook," had just been published. Much of the interview focused on Brand's addictions to drugs, sex, and his messy mane. When the subject shifted to dating, Handler got uncomfortable while still managing to get a laugh, saying, "The way you're looking at me wants me to cover my vagina."
Chelsea Handler blasted Tucker Carlson over a video
There's no love lost between Chelsea Handler and Fox News personality, Tucker Carlson. In February 2023, Carlson took exception to a sketch she'd filmed during her hosting duties for "The Daily Show," titled, "A Day In The Life Of A Childless Woman." The video satirically demonstrated how not being a mother allowed her to enjoy such extravagant excesses as heading to Paris for a croissant, climbing Mt. Everest, and inventing a time machine so she could kill Hitler.
Carlson had a different take. "The point is to make you feel good about being an aging, deeply unlikable woman who never had kids," he said during an episode of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" (via Mediaite). In a video shared on Twitter, Handler ever so politely responded, "My goodness, Tucker, I think it is time for you to ask yourself a serious question: Are you really upset about how much freedom I have? Or are you upset that you haven't been able to take it away from me yet?"
That same week, Handler took on Carlson's lament that of 97 federal judges appointed by President Joe Biden, only five were white. "No administration has ever looked less like America just by the numbers than the Biden administration," Carlson said on Fox News. During an episode of "The Daily Show," Handler pointed out that of 784 federal judges in the U.S. only 44 of them were actually black women, quipping, "I wish Tucker Carlson would go back to talking about which M&Ms he likes to f***."
She claimed Ben Shapiro's voice was bad for breeding
As much as Chelsea Handler despises right-wing pundits, she has no trouble attracting their attention, especially after she screened her video, "A Day in the Life of a Childless Woman," during her stint hosting "The Daily Show" in February 2023. But her mainstream media detractors like Fox News weren't the only ones taking shots at the comedian's minute-long vignette. Even a streamer like "Daily Wire" mainstay Ben Shapiro brought out his trusty pillory to get in on the act. "This lady is miserable," said Shapiro. "And it's written all over her face how miserable she is because she doesn't have kids."
After recapping what the childless comic claimed she did that day, Shapiro opined her real life was nowhere near as exciting. "She got a camera, she made a bad video, she drank a sh**load of wine, and she went back to sleep," he said, apparently missing the joke. "That's what she did that day."
In a video response posted on Twitter, Handler calmly took down Shapiro, saying, "Thank you for helping my cause of not having children. Who needs the birth control pill when your voice is 100 percent effective?" It's not the first time the two opponents have tangled. In 2017, in response to a Handler tweet blaming Republicans for a Texas church shooting that killed 26 worshipers, Shapiro opined that her comments were a low blow, stating, "This is pretty pathetic."
She lost respect for Louis C.K. after his lewd antics
In 2017, Louis C.K. became persona non grata after multiple female colleagues accused him of sexual misconduct. In a statement published by The New York Times, the "Louie" star fessed up to his behavior but argued that all of it had been consensual — however, that didn't make it right. "The power I had over these women is that they admired me," he wrote. "And I wielded that power irresponsibly." He ended his statement by insisting, "I will now step back and take a long time to listen."
However, just a year later, C.K. was back on the standup scene, and Chelsea Handler wasn't very forgiving of his quick return to comedy. "You can't just ignore [the scandal] and throw it under the rug. You have to talk about what you've learned, where you've come from, and where you are now," she said to HuffPost. "... It's about taking responsibility, ultimately." In 2022, Handler's thoughts on C.K. hit closer to home when she lost to the comedian in the Grammy Awards' best comedy album category. Discussing the event during an interview with Variety, she explained how she felt that the star hadn't yet taken full accountability for his actions. Still, she shrugged off losing out on the award to him, stating, "I mean, I would have preferred to lose to someone that I love a lot — like Kevin Hart."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Handler called Stacey Dash a 'Black white conservative'
On Twitter, Chelsea Handler shared a clip from a 2017 episode of her Netflix comedy series "Chelsea," where she dedicated a segment to categorizing racists including one area that she admitted was the most confusing of the lot. "Black white supremacists are black people who think white people are better than them," Handler said before citing examples like Trump cabinet minister Ben Carson, Sheriff David Clarke, and former "Clueless" star turned conservative activist Stacey Dash.
Shortly thereafter, Dash struck back while speaking in Washington, D.C. at a Turning Point USA Young Black Leadership Summit, per the New York Post. "Who do you think you are? The slave master who wants to keep me on the plantation? I'm sorry, those chains are broken, and I'm wielding a weapon," she responded. "No more plantation thinking."
Later in the speech, Dash played an even more shocking race card, when she told the audience that Handler's grandfather was a Nazi soldier during the Second World War. While true, on the TLC program "Who Do You Think We Are?" Handler had discovered that her grandfather was neither a Nazi party member nor a high-ranking officer, but a German citizen conscripted into the army, likely against his will. As of this writing, the comedian hadn't issued any further responses to Dash. However, the former actor seemed joyful over news that the star wasn't returning for another season of "Chelsea," tweeting, "In short, canceled."
Chelsea Handler dubbed Angelina Jolie a 'homewrecker'
In 2010, it took a boisterous nightclub audience in New Jersey to get Chelsea Handler's dander up to the point that she was verbally ambushing a major celebrity. Based on footage discovered by Daily News, the publication reported that when a patron inexplicably yelled out Angelina Jolie's name, Handler jumped at it, calling the actress a "homewrecker." The comedian later added her belief that Jolie wasn't a particularly nice person, stating, "She can rescue as many babies from as many countries as she wants to [but] I don't f***ing believe you."
Handler might have found that outburst liberating, given that she was besties with "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston, whose marriage to Brad Pitt was said to have ended because of his relationship with Jolie. However, she denied the Aniston friendship had anything to do with her remarks. "You just look at a woman, and ... they have all these children, and they're buying ones from different countries, and you're like, something's up with this lady," Handler said to Joy Behar on "HLN." "She doesn't seem on the up-and-up."
Six years later, Handler — by now hosting her Netflix show "Chelsea" — gleefully jumped into the Brangelina fray in the wake of the couple's divorce. As she put it, the breakup wasn't exactly surprising. "Because [Pitt] married a f***king lunatic!" she shrieked. During a 2019 episode of "Watch What Happens Live," Handler further claimed that she'd received a strongly worded response from Jolie on the matter.
She publicly locked horns with one of her writers
Chelsea Handler might rub celebrities the wrong way, but one workplace incident had her on defense. In 2016, around the time Handler decided to stop "Chelsea Lately" to jump to Netflix, one of the show's writers, standup comedian Heather McDonald, guested on the podcast "Allegedly" (via TMZ) to talk about her relationship with the star. "I ... 100% lived in fear," she said about Handler's alleged toxicity at work. "I enjoyed my time there, I was happy, but I mean something can happen, and my heart would be like, beating and then be like, 'Is this it?' you know, and somehow I just managed to keep surviving."
But during an episode of "The Howard Stern Show," Handler slammed McDonald with her own take. "When I found out at work that she was trading stories to Us Weekly about my personal life in exchange for having her photograph run in the magazine, that is when I could have fired her," Handler claimed. "... She had a job for four more years. I never hung out with her personally again." She added her belief that the comedian was far too adept at her job to dump. "She was good on the show, she was funny, and I thought, 'You know what? Just separate yourself from her personally.'" By all accounts, the two have seemingly not spoken to each other since "Chelsea Lately" ended.
Chelsea called Piers Morgan 'a terrible interviewer'
Chelsea Handler seems to love knocking down right-leaning journalists, as was the case in 2011 when she was a fill-in host on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." Her guest? None other than Piers Morgan himself, who gushed over the interview genius of his predecessor Larry King. Handler interjected, "Well, you have some similarities between Larry King. You do like to interrupt a lot, so you have that going for you."
Arguably, their next encounter on the show three years later fostered more hostility when Handler lamented, "You can't even pay attention for 60 seconds. You're a terrible interviewer." Morgan retorted she wasn't interesting enough to warrant attention, which ignited a confrontational exchange that ended with the comic capping her attack by declaring, "Well, maybe that's why your job was coming to an end." "Piers Morgan Tonight" was canceled weeks later.
In 2021, Handler drop-kicked Morgan on Twitter after he left his "Good Morning Britain" gig when co-hosts called him out for belittling Meghan Markle in her controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey. In one tweet, she commented, "Some a**holes get better. Some just stay the same," before adding a throwback video of her previous interview with Morgan. Her follow-up tweet was more scathing. "It's amazing that [Piers Morgan] calls himself a journalist when time and time again, he seems to have missed the women's movement. Or any movement really," she wrote. "Another day, another racist old white man using his privilege to throw tantrums on TV."
She dissed Joe Rogan for radicalizing men
During her final night in a week-long, guest-hosting stint on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in June 2022, Chelsea Handler vented her anger at men whom she believed stood idly by while the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision allowing states to outlaw abortion. "Talk to your sons," she said. "Tell them why this is so important before they get radicalized by Joe Rogan."
Ironically, Joe Rogan also didn't support the reversal. "I'm 100% pro-choice, but as a rational person, you have to look at what it actually is," he said on his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," that same month. "If you don't, then we're playing a game. The game is you want your side to be correct, but the reality is this is a very complicated, weird thing."
Rogan never responded to Handler's accusation but has discussed how he's known her since her earlier standup days and is a fan. "I love Chelsea," Rogan said on the "Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh" podcast. "Well, I like, wrote a thing about one of her books, or I wrote a little blurb ... She was cool." Her issue with Rogan may have more to do with his apparent reputation for harboring toxic masculinity, something he slammed during an episode of his podcast in January 2023. "What we think of as toxic masculinity is really a bunch of losers," he said. "... There's toxic human beings and some of them happen to be male."
Donald Trump triggered her to change her life
Of all the personalities who Chelsea Handler claims to have put her through the wringer, Donald Trump has topped her list ever since he succeeded in his bid to become President in 2016. "Trump was a trigger for me," she told The Hill. "There's another word that I never thought I'd use, but it's a perfect word to describe it because it represented, to so many people, their lives becoming unhinged." In 2017, she issued a statement on Twitter announcing her departure from her Netflix series "Chelsea" to become more politically active. "My goal is to be better informed, raise my voice, and participate in a more meaningful way," she added.
Still, that didn't stop her from continuing her comedic ventures, slagging Trump whenever she could. During her guest hosting stint on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Handler said of Trump, "[He] attempted a coup because he's a little fat big baby loser." When sitting in for "The Daily Show," she philosophized, "[It is] interesting that Trump doesn't like being called a p***y a** b***h when those are his three favorite things."
During a CNN interview in 2019, Handler showed her serious side when she declared that Trump exemplified the essence of white privilege. "Let's keep other people down, so we keep winning, so I can keep filling my own pockets," she said about Trump's mindset. "At a certain point, if you really want equality, you have to be okay with other people succeeding."
Donald Trump Jr. defended his family against her
What's hardly a secret is that Chelsea Handler is not a Donald Trump fan, which she felt also gave her artistic license to attack the rest of his family. Speaking about Donald Sr.'s wife, Melania Trump, and his daughter Ivanka Trump on "Watch What Happens Live" in 2020, she groaned, "I just want to shake them violently." Three years earlier, she was equally reckless in responding to news that Eric Trump and his wife were expecting a baby, when she tweeted, "Just what we need. Another person with those jeans [sic]. Let's hope for a girl.
What she didn't expect was a high-octane backlash from the former president's older son, Donald Trump Jr., who shared a statement on Twitter declaring Handler's insult was typical of liberal elite hatred. "Attacking the announcement of someone's first pregnancy would seem below the belt to most, but sadly that's no longer the case," he wrote before chiding Handler on the incorrect spelling of the word "genes." Handler's comeback, after issuing an apology for the lexicon faux pas, made things more interesting when she added, "I'm a little stoned. What's your excuse?" Still, Eric was upset over Handler's remarks, which he related on an episode of "The Dr. Oz Show" (via Page Six). "It's really, really sad," he said. "This is a very special thing, and it should be celebrated. When someone spells genes incorrectly, you kind of have to turn your head and ignore it a little."