Really quickly, close your eyes and tell me what you think are the two scariest things in the world. For me, it's someone jumping out at me, and also losing my fundamental human rights as a woman and living in a state of bigotry and fear. You know, the usual. So imagine my terror in discovering that everyone's favorite talk show host found a way to combine both — Ellen DeGeneres scared Ricky Gervais with the help of a man dressed up as Donald Trump. Yup, that oughta do it. Gervais was on The Ellen Show on Friday, speaking with the host about his feelings about Trump running for President, when suddenly things went terribly wrong. (Well, wrong for him. Great for us.)
Just as Gervais was reaching peak frustration and complaining that the world had gone crazy (because comedians say offensive things as jokes and are forced to apologize, but Trump has been saying offensive things seriously and getting applauded), the object of his frustration came bursting out of the table. Usually DeGeneres just uses crew members from her show to do the frightening, but this time it was a Trump impersonator — in a full suit, wig, and everything — who screamed in Gervais' face before running off backstage. Watch the whole thing unfold right here:
I know he looked relaxed, and at first I sided with DeGeneres when she worried, “I don’t really think we got you good.” But having watched a couple times now, I think Gervais was way more scared than he let on. For one thing, immediately afterward, Gervais was like, "I didn't see it. What was it?" and told DeGeneres that he was turned away at the moment of the faux-Trump burst out. But if you rewatch, the scare was timed perfectly, and Gervais was actually looking right at the table, so I'm pretty sure he had some sort of fear blackout that blinded him momentarily. But it sure didn't mute him and it didn't affect his swearing, because Gervais was quick to set the record straight. He said,
"What isn’t getting me good? Because I nearly had a heart attack if that’s any good. What’s getting me good, me actually sh*tting myself? Because it was pretty close, I’ll tell you that. Trust me, Ellen, you got me f*cking good!"
The host cackled through all of that, so what I'm basically saying is that DeGeneres doesn't know her own strength as a prankster, and she's gotten better at scaring celebrities than anyone could possibly know. And sure, this is all I want for Halloween right now, but it's all fun and games until someone legit poops their pants onstage. That's when it verges from "treat" territory all the way into "trick," and if this encounter with Gervais is any indication, he should probably sleep with one eye open, because I don't think he can take another scare like that.
Image: The Ellen Show/EllenTube
