Jerrod Carmichael recalls shocking sex joke he told on “Ellen” that got cut: 'The audience went silent'

"I looked over to Ellen for support. She was just like, 'Jesus Christ.'"

While we may totally appreciate Jerrod Carmichael's salty brand of humor, it was a bit too edgy for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The comedian and star of HBO's new series Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show recalled a joke that fell horribly flat during his 2022 appearance on the last season of DeGeneres' daytime talk show when he stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers Wednesday night.

"It was the last season before she got mean, too," Carmichael quipped, referencing the toxic workplace allegations that plagued the host toward the end of the show's run. "The internet found out a 60-year-old lesbian wasn't always nice."

He continued, "So I'm doing Ellen, and it's a studio audience like this, and I'm trying to be comfortable in the moment. I'll give the abridged version: It's like, you know, 'blah blah blah gay,' and the audience is like, 'aw,' and Ellen's like, 'blah blah blah, yeah, I'm gay,' and the audience is like, 'yeah!'"

It was a "warm and fuzzy" moment. Until...

"I was talking about being in therapy and how I'm exploring a lot of things in therapy, and Ellen was asking about my love life," Carmichael said. "She asked if I was seeing anybody, and I thought it was a good time to make a joke."

He paused before recalling, "'Ellen, it's funny you mention that because I actually recently realized in therapy that if a guy doesn't somehow remind me of my mom, I can't get hard.'" He paused again.

"Nothing," he said of the studio reaction at the time. "The audience went silent. The boom mic operator pulled the mic away from my face. I look over to Ellen for support. She was just like, 'Jesus Christ.' And then it got cut out from the show."

A cackling Meyers replied, "It is funny when I think about how many moms were in that Ellen audience."

"I realized it was 2 in the afternoon in Burbank and I was like, Oh this has no place,'" Carmichael said.

The comedian also spoke about how excited he was to appear on DeGeneres' show because she "meant a lot to me growing up," citing the groundbreaking moment when she came out in the late 1990s. "My mom played her [on TV], and that was a form of acceptance," he told Meyers of his conservative parent. "My mom allowed Ellen into the home."

Carmichael shared his admiration for DeGeneres during the May 2022 appearance in question, when he was promoting his Emmy-winning comedy special Rothaniel. At the time he jokingly called the host a "gay white Desmond Tutu."

Watch the interview, sans Carmichael's risqué dating joke, below.

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