Crazed fans of the national talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, could be seen sprinting through the EMU yesterday after receiving a message from the talk show host’s Twitter account.
By 2 p.m., a crowd had begun to gather at the EMU Amphitheater. DeGeneres notified her fans on Twitter, posting: “Attention Oregon Ducks: ‘Quack. Quack. Quack-quack quack.’ I’ll translate: Start following my tweets now, you’ll be glad you did.”
The iconic talk show host, known for her jokes and dance moves, is also admired for her life story, having overcome the challenges of prejudice in the media and every day life.
“She’s quirky. She’s crazy. She’s normal. She normalizes the lesbian community for the masses,” said Heather Spickard, former gender and sexual diversity advocate for the ASUO.
University student Erin Honseler, who carried a sign reading “Ellen for president,” agreed.
“She’s a gay hero, she’s the only one on TV right now who can speak for the LGBTQ
community,” Honseler said.
“Anything she says is funny,” said Sarah Sweat of Eugene. “She gives us stay-at-home-moms something to look forward to.”
Sweat said she records the show five days a week to watch over dinner with her husband. Sweat, who picked up her kids from school early to see the event, hopes to one day see the show live at the studio in California.
But DeGeneres herself was nowhere to be seen, and excited but confused fans had to rely on the tweet.
At 3:40 p.m., the camera crew, which had largely been ignoring the crowd’s questions, took out a microphone with “The Ellen Show” written on it.
“Any minute now,” the man with the microphone said. “Pay attention to your phones.”
Finally a speaker was turned up, and DeGeneres’ voice asked live from the California studio, “You know who has 3.4 million followers on Twitter?”
A moment later, students were rushing the EMU. One person had to jump over two others to become one of the first 10 people to get a bar of soap to the camera crew, winning him a free phone with a year of free service.
Others ran up and down the EMU, still having no idea what it was they were looking for, when the winners were given their next assignment. They had 15 minutes to take a picture with the phone, recreating a photo of two brothers hugging, of which copies were being passed around.
The pictures were then e-mailed to DeGeneres, who picked her favorite, and the winner received $1,000 and a trip to Los Angeles to see the show. After hearing the instructions, University student Michael Smith took off sprinting with a large backpack.
“I know two brothers who look exactly alike, one just has a little more facial hair,” he explained while running. Catching his breath at the Living Learning Center, he surprised his coworkers and asked to use the phone. “Pat, I need a huge favor,” he cried. “You need to call your brother and meet me in front of Hamilton now! Give him your shirt. One, two, three — saving,” said Smith, as he scrambled to take the picture that would be chosen by Ellen only minutes later.
“I never won anything,” Smith said. “It’s kind of surreal that I’m going to LA, I’ve never been before.”
The show came to the University because its comedy producer, Andy Zenor, is a University alumnus and enthusiastically advocated for the University at a meeting where show staffers decided upon campuses to visit.
“We never had such a great crowd before!” show staffer Aaron Pinkston said of the Oregon fans. The show recently visited the University of California at Berkeley.
The show airs today at 4 p.m. on KMTR.
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