Michelle Obama Roasts Ellen DeGeneres for Making the First Lady Do Push-Ups on TV
Former First Lady Michelle Obama famously wanted to get America’s kids in shape, but the “Let’s Move!” campaign wasn’t an open invitation for every daytime TV star to put her through an undignified physical challenge like she’s some lowly, abused production assistant.
During Mrs. Obama’s time living in the White House, Ellen DeGeneres was, by far, the most powerful and influential cultural figure to fill the 3 p.m. time slot. And although the host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show was secretly running her institutional series like it was a third-world dictatorship, throughout the Obama administration, the arbiters of our democratic society all flocked to pay homage to the great Ellen any time they needed to spread an important and uplifting message to the masses of stay-at-home parents and kids just getting out of middle school.
Don't Miss
Given Ellen’s cultural cachet at the time, Obama likely considered it to be part of her responsibilities as America’s First Lady to visit The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2012 and promote her initiative to combat childhood obesity. But as Obama admitted during her recent appearance on Good Hang with Amy Poehler, Ellen’s uncomfortably informal proposal of a push-up contest during the viral interview was beneath the dignity of her position — and, no matter what Ellen says, Obama’s form was fine.
Obama, now 61, opened up to Poehler about how the years have affected her famously fit physique, revealing that her current fitness regimen features some accommodations that Ellen would consider cheating. When Poehler asked her esteemed guest if she still does push-ups during her regular exercise, Obama admitted, “Well, now I do them on my knees.”
“I don’t need to do regular push-ups, I have nothing to prove,” the former First Lady stated plainly, noting that her particular physical makeup has always made military-style push-ups uncomfortable. “I think, with my arm length, I don’t go all the way down — you know who pointed that out was Ellen.”
Referencing the above viral competition that Ellen foisted upon the First Lady back in 2012, Obama laughed of Ellen’s audacity, “She challenged me to a push-up competition. I’m the First Lady! And she heard I worked out, and she was like, ‘Do you want to (have a contest)?’”
“So I’m on her show doing push-ups,” Obama recalled, “and I did more push-ups than her, but she still says that I didn’t go down all the way.” However, Obama says that she had a medical exemption from going full nose-to-floor with her push-up form, telling Poehler, “Anatomically, I don’t think I really can (go down all the way), my arms are really long. And she’s a much smaller person than me.”
Yeah, physically and symbolically — I don’t recall any exposés coming out about the First Lady dumping snakes on the heads of White House staffers.
