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Chelsea Handler was on the Today Show today to promote her new book, Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me, which is out tomorrow. This is Chelsea’s fourth book, and as Matt Lauer explained on the Today Show at one point last year her other three books were at spot 1, 2 and 3 on the NY Times Bestseller list, so I guess that explains why she’s putting out another one.
Chelsea’s friends wrote most of this latest book, and they detail how she’s lied to and pulled pranks on them. She told Matt Lauer that all the people who wrote the book will split the profits, so I guess that’s a nice way to pay back some of the friends and coworkers she’s misled over the years. Like this poor guy, who she convinced that he had to cut his honeymoon short so that he could do a photoshoot for Time that was nonexistent. The way she told it made it sound like the guy was just about to come back to work before she pulled the plug at the last minute and admitted it was a joke. It wasn’t funny, it was mean, but I guess that describes her humor to a T.
I figured it was time for them to earn some money for all the hell that I’ve put everybody through…
On what she likes about practical jokes
I like the lead up of everybody getting in on the lie with you, so that the people around you are forced to lie with you and they don’t want anything to do with the lie, but they’re forced to lie with that person too. So it becomes a huge lie and everyone’s in on it against one person.On how she convinced a co-worker to come home early from his honeymoon
(Lauer explained that she told him he’d be featured in Time Magazine.) There was no Time Magazine photoshoot. That was him not taking his marriage seriously… He didn’t actually come home. He was going to come home… At the very end I felt bad and said ‘absolutely not. You obviously don’t love your wife but she should know about this.’
[Transcribed from The Today Show, aired 5-9-11]
At least the guy didn’t come home from his honeymoon, but how rude was that? That’s her humor though, and some people think she’s funny for whatever reason. Lauer said that Chelsea also convinced a boyfriend that he was going to a funeral for a dog, and that there were more anecdotes in the book that he couldn’t repeat as they weren’t appropriate for morning television. I wonder what she’s done to Jennifer Aniston, but you know if Aniston wrote a chapter we would be hearing about it.
Here’s part of the book description from Amazon: “It’s no lie: Chelsea Handler loves to smoke out “dumbassness,” the condition people suffer from that allows them to fall prey to her brand of complete and utter nonsense. Friends, family, co-workers–they’ve all been tricked by Chelsea into believing stories of total foolishness and into behaving like total fools. Luckily, they’ve lived to tell the tales and, for the very first time, write about them.”
So other people are dumbasses for believing her, and she bears no culpability for pulling pranks and lying.
she has friends?
I don’t find her funny. She’s just cranky, stuff she says is like when coworkers and me bitch about things during lunch.
I would like it if I didn’t think she was funny (QUANTIFIER: on her show), but I do. *hangs head* Her sarcasm is right up my alley. But I do think sometimes she crosses the line in concerts and interviews.
is she 50+
I don’t even remember what her books were named- except the “It’s me Chelsea” one, and that one was kind of funny: But then she rushed out the next one and it was SO stupid! It was poorly written and reeked of “how gross can I get and still get interviewed about this on The Today Show?” I read a lot, and nothing pisses me off more than when an author rushes out their next book and it’s garbage. I think Chelsea has totally crossed over from funny to crude and offensive anyway.
@Vicky–I wondered the same thing! She has friends? People actually find her amusing? Boggles the mind…
I have no idea who she is, but I find it telling that she looks drunk in every single one of those pictures.
She is trashy and disgusting.
If you hang out with somebody who likes practical jokes, then you’re probably somebody who likes them too or you wouldn’t be hanging out with them.
I can’t stand this woman and she wears ugly shoes. To say she has no class is not even enough.
I read somewhere that a lot of people who perpetually try to prank and surprise everybody have repressed anger and turn out to be sociopaths……huh.
Ugly, old, unfunny bitch.
Tired of her – used to watch her show in the beginning and her first book was OK, but the more success she’s had, the less I like her. She seems to have gotten meaner and more obnoxious.
I’m guessing the reason she still has those friends is they all want a share of the money and fame. Otherwise, who would want to put up with that?
Was the friends word a typo…I think it should say FIENDS
Cannot stand her.
Nasty beyotch. I want to use a stronger word. She’s funny on her show, at least she was a while ago, haven’t seen it in months, but not otherwise. I glanced through her book in Target and she was relating a nasty story about catching her parents naked or something, in an incredibly crass fashion.
I hate pranks.
I’m in the UK, I’ve never seen this woman on anything and I never want to, I’m completely judging a book by the cover here but she strikes me as a giant pain in the a**
I read one of her books. Didn’t like it, wasn’t funny.
I’m sure shes never pranked Aniston or anyone one else she is desperate to be seen with, she only mistreats her employees who will put up with her for a paycheck.
I love her!
I’m all for practical jokes, as long as they’re NOT mean or destructive. (as in, the person who gets pranked is able to laugh about it, too, when it actually happens, and not just afterwards.)
I get the feeling that Handler’s pranks tend to be one or both of “mean” and “destructive”.
to poster #11 (mshuffle…), what you say struck me, because wasn’t Mel Gibson known as a “prankster” on set? and I heard that his “jokes” were quite mean-spirited, too.
I thought she was funny at first, but there is something about her humor that is beyond mean. She seems desperate at times, like the tape she did, naked and supposedly having sex, as part of an audition (I think, but it was not a real sex tape). You have to be pretty desperate and willing to go to new lows to do that. I guess that is the feeling I always get from her whenever I see her, desperate and willing to hit bottom and then dig deeper regarding her humor.
She should also fire her makeup and hair person, if she has one. They don’t make her look good. If she doesn’t have one, she needs to get one. But, since she can’t tell the difference between humor that is irreverent and humor that is just plain nasty, I guess she can’t see she always looks like she is just taking out the trash.
She’s disgusting. Who’s buying her books? If they’re printed on rolling papers, I can see Aniston snapping up a bunch, but otherwise, why would you pay actual dollars for anything this woman does?
What an asshole.
Ok, has anyone read the story about taking the boyfriend to the fake dog funeral? It was so funny I cried. One highlight: she convinced her ex (the head of E!) that the dogs favorite thing in the world was churros, all with a straight face on the way there, and got him to stop and buy enough churros to make a churro bouquet , in his honor. I guess you just have to read it.
She seems bitter about life.
How much farther can she be up Jen A’s a**? All of a sudden they’re best friends and Angie is the enemy. Funny how Chelsea never trashed Angie until she was a (paid?) friend to Jen A. I used to love to watch her until she actually became who she used to ridicule – Hollywood suck up and hack.
Can’t stand this insufferable cow
Aren’t her 15 minutes up yet?
I love Chelsea Handler. Because she and I are the same age and yet, she looks like she could be my mother. It is good for my ego!
My biggest problem with Handler is she’s just not funny… she’s like a teenager who thinks she’s cool because she gets falling down, drunk and is slutty. Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin should kick her ass.
@ Mshuffleupagus
You could have a point there. I read that Mel Gibson used to do the same thing on film sets (i.e. back when he actually had a film career). He used to constantly pull stunts and childish pranks on people.
I think she’s funny, mean or not. Pulling pranks is what people do. People love Ashton Kutcher and all his crappy pranks he pulled on his show, but now that a woman is heading up pranks, they’re all of a sudden too mean. Her books are witty, and I don’t think they’d be bestsellers if they weren’t.
I am a fan – I think she is witty and perhaps a lot of people don’t get her humor. However, her appearance is deteriorating. When she was living with Ted her hair styles and clothing were frumpy and she looked like a woman in her fifties. Since jettisoning Ted, she is wearing sharper clothes and the hair style is more youthful. I have a pet peeve about her always wearing sleeveless boob enhancing tops. Her arms are not in Michelle Obama shape and she is always exposing them. She has a great body, however. A new makeup artist would be helpful for her. She looks ghastly in the Matt Lauer interview photo.
Wow, she just sounds like an asshole. I’ll have to just underline the question being asked here: she HAS friends?
I have a great sense of humor, but mean little pranks are best left to bored teenagers.
@Ana
You appear to be misinformed. I know of NOONE that loves Ashton Kutcher.
They once may have liked him as they once may have found Handler funny.
Some of these unlikeable Hollywood types expose too much of themselves and we, the public, don’t care for what we see.
You can be a prankster and not be mean or malicious. Paul Newman and Robert Redford did it to each other all the time as do Clooney and Pitt. But their jokes are never mean or nasty, just hilariously funny. You can do it without hurting someone.
aniston just hasn’t realized yet that chels lied to her. it involved lots of tequila in mexico and chels telling her, “oh yeah, jen, i know brad still loves you, he really does, that ho angie just keeps him locked up so he can’t run back to you. yeah, yeah, you really need to drunk dial him and tell him how much you still love him.”
I wonder how funny she would find it if somebody she pranked walked up to her and slapped the living shit out of her — preferably live on TV.
She’s got problems. And she’s not funny.
SHE’S NOT FUNNY!! The only reason she has a show is because she slept with the right person! She’s the epitome of the TOTAL OPPOSITE OF FUN-NY!
I’m always a bit surprised at how much hatred there is for comediennes like Chelsea in the comments of these Hollywood news/gossip blogs, though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, because pissing people off is part of their shtick. If they are pissing people off then I guess they are doing their job (as long as they are still making their fans laugh).
I put Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman into this category too (I always see a lot of hatred for those two on the internets as well). Though in some ways I’ve seen that Chelsea seems to be even more polarizing than Kathy and Sarah. But to be fair, a good percentage of people commenting on this story seem to know nothing about Chelsea and have never seen or read any of her stuff.
I guess the fact that I like all three of these ladies makes me an a$$hole. I also love Howard Stern so I guess that makes me a HUGE a$$hole. 😛
I don’t have a strong opinion of her either way, but I’ve seen her show a couple of times and she’s funny to me. I think she’s hated and polarized on here because she’s said some mean stuff about the Brange. But I kind of admire someone so willing to say public stuff about the Brange that isn’t over-the-top adoration. She could get her butt kicked in the industry for daring to make fun of the holy family. *shrugs* I don’t know. She’s ballsy, I’ll give her that.
@Melinda: if that’s really true that’s hilarious. I’d never be able to pull off something that ridic without lmao and ruining it!
35 my ass
50 cent used toilet she is so f#cking ugly she was probably jealous that the co-worker got a husband.
I usually try to support female comedians..
But she is gross and not funny. I wouldn’t pay a cent for anything associated with her.
Ugh… :/
If calling someone a whore/cunt, and calling little kids racist names like “Eskimos,” and “monkeys,” is funny to you, then Chelsea is your girl! 🙂
I bet if she were a man, people would say, hello, misogyny! But I guess because she’s a woman, it’s ok? BUT, it amazes me that some of the same people calling Gwyneth classless for using the word, “cunt,” are fans of Chelsea. They both used the word in a nasty way, and it’s fine for one, but not the other? I guess if you label it “comedy,” then it’s ok? Or, is it because Chelsea attacks someone unlikeable, and therefore, the victims deserve it and it’s OK? Because Zahara is a complete bitch and everyone knows it! 😉
The logic of some posters is completely baffling to me.
When I’ve watched her show, it’s the other comedians – during the round table segment – that I found funny. Chelsea can barely read the cue cards and is straight up mean to some of the comics if she has a personal beef with them. She’s lucky she banged the right guy(s) to get where she is. She’d be getting loaded in a TGI Fridays somewhere in L.A. with Dina Lohan if she hadn’t.
She’s a female douche bag.
Repulsive in every way. I’m glad she gets naked for cash and literally slept her way to a career so we can all quit pretending she’s got any talent.
I don’t like him, but Russell Brand was never as funny as when he owned her on her own show after she was a b word to him and called it her “personality.” He said he’d need rubber gloves to touch her vagina– and he’s slept and fallen in love with actual prostitutes so that’s saying something. Handler really is that gross.
There is no way this chick is the same age as I am. She cannot be 35. Plus, she looks like Holy Hell’s first cousin in those photos! No ma’am.
I Love her! I have her books and find her honesty refreshing and her adventures hysterical.
She was a fan of Angelina until her and Brad got together, it is in her book. She has never liked either of them since and it has nothing to do with her friendship with Jennifer.
I get that she has offended people with her anti brangelina stance but she is entitled to her opinion. I too, was a huge fan of Angelina’s but when she hooked up with Pitt, her strong persona came crashing down. As I have said before, she is a shell of the woman she was. This is my opinion and is not meant to offend anyone. I do, however,agree that any cruel comments about children crosses the line.
So, trashing children, especially chldren of color is what passes for “ballsy”. Wow, what is acceptable as comedy has really gone downhill. I like strong female comics, but Handler is just not funny.
What an asshole.
@MickeyB it has nothing to do with what she’s said about Angelina Jolie who is fair game in my book even if I am a fan…it’s the fact that she has made jokes both racial and homophobic about her young children… And she used to tell jokes about Aniston too but once they got the same management and started vacationing together that all changed-it screams of not only a personal motivation for her jokes but a smarmy professional one too… just not funny.
can’t stand the idiot…
go back and try and impress aniston coz no one else is interested in her crap…
did this idiot seriously think that trashing angelina was funny? what a bitter bitter loser!!!!!
A stupid no count B!tch!
Ugh. I don’t find Chelsea to be the least bit funny… It escapes me how she’s managed to be so successful.
She’s trashy & *vulgar*. I’m all for comedians being less than classy sometimes, but she can be downright disgusting (& not even funny in doing so.)
And I don’t think there’s ever been a more appropriate person for the title ‘Queen Bitch’.
I’m trying to understand how this twit became relevant in the first place.
She’s not a douche bag, she’s the used douche water.
She’s a total see-you-next-tuesday…there’s no other way to explain her.
There is NO WAY she is 35!
If she’s 35, I’m 21. She lies for a living, so who really knows or cares how old the hag is. She is a pimple on the ass of humanity. Useless.
HAHAHAHA!!!!
She is fucking hilarious!!!!!
Don’t know why but like many others here who have posted..I don’t care for this woman. I used to watch her show, then realized that she’s not funny and is a bit offensive. How the hell she still has a show is beyond me.
Ridden hard and put away wet.
She’s nasty and not a bit funny.