Culture

Someone Started A Rumour That Ellen Died, So People Are Paying Their “Respects” With #RipEllen

Stans never cease to amaze.

by Michelle Rennex  7 July 2020
#Ripellen ellen dead rumour

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Ellen DeGeneres has had herself a pretty tough year.

Beyond that whole Dakota Johnson debacle, Ellen has more recently been dragged for her insensitive comparison of quarantine in her mansion to like being in prison. And now, Ellen is apparently dead — well, at least according to the #RipEllen hashtag.

Ellen DeGeneres, of course, isn’t actually dead. The rumour was started just a few hours ago, but caught on like wildfire. While the origins of the rumour are hard to trace, many lead back to @itstby — an Ariana Grande stan account that claims responsibility for the trending hashtag.

At around midday today, @itstby tweeted: “THERE’S CCTV FOOTAGE LEAKED OF ELLEN FALLING OFF HER ROOF?!-$/”.

From here, @itstby got their friends together in a group chat to work together to “start a rumour that Ellen died” by falling off a roof, and it worked! #RipEllen started trending almost instantly and begun to confuse people online, who didn’t know whether the claim was true or not.

But once people figured out that #RipEllen was a hoax, the hashtag was flooded with photos of everyone but Ellen herself. Grabbing photos of celebrities and characters who had even a slight resemblance to the talkshow host, #RipEllen was hijacked and was just turned into one big meme.

There was absolutely no holding back with the savage photos either, which ranged from characters like Sue Sylvester from Glee, Ryan from High School Musical, Backpack Kid and even the blonde, wrinkly king, Gordon Ramsay.

People even used the opportunity to claim that they actually had footage of Ellen DeGeneres falling off a roof and to her death. Again, of course, this was a lie, but it sure did make a bleak afternoon a whole lot more fun.

Anyway, #RipEllen. Gone, but never forgotten.