9/11 Led to the Fall of Ellen DeGeneres, According to Domino Effect Theory

I don’t have strong opinions on Ellen DeGeneres — she was a fine comic, a subpar daytime host, probably a bully and one of the only Hollywood people to actually lose a job because of cancel culture. Really, she was great as Dory in Finding Nemo. 

But as inconsequential as Ellen’s current whereabouts are to my life, the theory of how she got here is incredibly important. You see, it all starts with 9/11. Yes, that 9/11. The one in 2001, the one which permanently changed the trajectory of American public life, the definition of freedom, warmongering, human rights, airport security, and according to one beloved theory, Ellen DeGeneres’ career. 

The Domino Effect theory on this issue — Ellen’s career, not 9/11, we don’t have time for that, we don’t have the maps for that — spans multiple decades, families and major motion picture blockbuster franchises. Circulating in the annals of the internet for years, lets break down the theory completely, so you can decide how true it is. 

Starting with the beginning: On September 11, 2001, two planes were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City. In the aftermath, a countless number of musicians were inspired. Toby Keith, unfortunately, but also others. Most significantly for this theory, Gerard Way said he started the band My Chemical Romance after witnessing the attack. 

My Chemical Romance’s music inspired Stephanie Meyer to write her sexually repressed Mormon adjacent vampire series, Twilight. Then, years later, 50 Shades of Gray was written by E.L. James. That smut was allegedly fan fiction inspired by Twilight. Eventually, the 50 Shades of Gray book series was adapted into the deeply uncomfortable film series of the same name, starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson. 

Johnson, infamous nepo baby of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, step-nepo daughter of Antonio Banderas, then became independently famous enough to appear on talk shows to promote her projects. One of those talk show appearances was on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in late 2019, where Johnson confronted DeGeneres about lying about being invited to her 30th birthday party. Johnson was unlike other celebrity guests in that she had been around fame since her birth; she was less likely to tolerate the slight snubs that other guests on the show did. So, in what could be considered the death knell of DeGeneres’ daytime talk show career, Johnson rebuked Ellen by saying: “Actually, no. That’s not the truth, Ellen.”

Around the same time, articles started to emerge about the rumors swirling about the show’s “toxic” set. DeGeneres was rumored to be a bully, a bad boss and generally terrible to work with. These rumors continued to build and build until eventually, DeGeneres departed her own show. The Ellen DeGeneres Show officially ended in 2022 after 19 seasons, which DeGeneres later addressed in her 2024 special For Your Approval. 

The simplistic online reading of all of this is that by standing up to Ellen on television, Dakota Johnson empowered tread-upon employees to speak up about their own issues and encourage a social media pile-on, thus leading to DeGeneres’ cancellation. 

To summarize: 9/11 galvanizes Gerard Way to create My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance is source inspiration for Stephanie Meyer to write Twilight. E.L. James allegedly wrote 50 Shades of Gray as fan fiction of Twilight. Fifty Shades of Gray gets adapted into a major motion picture, starring nepo baby Dakota Johnson. Johnson becomes famous and does the talk show circuit, eventually appearing on Ellen. Johnson accuses Ellen of lying, which surfaces plenty of other unflattering allegations against the host, who eventually steps down. 

While I cannot prove that any of these events are cosmically linked to each other, they all really did happen, in the order laid out here. Sure, other factors went into My Chemical Romance becoming the world famous band they became, and Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray had to overcome the odds and both become world-wide best selling novels, then movies. Sure, the problems on DeGeneres’ set had to exist long before Dakota Johnson came into the mix. But in a world where most online conspiracy theories are directly contributing to the rampant spread of preventable diseases, the rise in fascism and generally intolerable behavior, indulging in a theory where the worst outcome is thinking fate intervened in Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show is kind of nice.