Humor sometimes happens at the expense of other people, but one should always be a good sport about it if the joke was done in a tasteful manner. However, when popular TV personality Ellen DeGeneres made fun of a Georgia real estate woman's name, the woman decided to sue her.
Titi (pronounced TEE'-tee) Pierce filed the lawsuit when DeGeneres displayed one of Pierce's real estate signs on air and made fun of it. When the sign was displayed on air, Pierce's phone number was not blurred out and she said that she then became the victim of large amounts of harassment and ridicule. The suit is for causing emotional distress coupled with defamation and the invasion of privacy.
The episode wherein the joke is featured originally premiered on February 22, 2016. However, Pierce claims the harassment began after the same episode aired on the 15th of April, 2016.
Warner Bros. has declined to comment on the incident and its developments. According to a report from Cosmopolitan, DeGeneres herself has not officially commented on the incident as well. However, the executive producers of "Ellen" have come out with an official statement, according to ABC News, saying, "We try to have fun every day and make people laugh and never intend to hurt anyone's feeling."
In an interview with Parade magazine, DeGeneres describes herself as a "sensitive comedian" adding, " I want to make people laugh. I didn't think it was ever funny to make fun of people. There's so much to laugh at without it being at someone else's expense."
DeGeneres is known for her quirky humor on TV shows such as her own talk show and in movies such as "Finding Nemo" and the upcoming "Finding Dory." She has amassed a large following during the course of her career in show business, but this just shows that not everyone is a fan.
