Ellen Scaring The Pants Off Sarah Paulson Is The Three Minutes of Surprise Joy You Need Today

If you, like me, are not watching American Horror Story: Cult for all the reasons Riese has articulated repeatedly here on Autostraddle dot com (plus a general distrust of Ryan Murphy and a startle reflex more pronounced than a baby kitten in a thunderstorm), Ellen has answered your prayers by scaring the figurative pants off Sarah Paulson on an episode of television it feels good to watch. This is one of those very rare videos where you know exactly what’s going to happen, yet watching it unfold is a delight.

Tag yourself. I’m the Sarah under the table clutching at the closest lesbian going, “I’m really scared something else is going to happen!”

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

21 Comments

  1. OMG that was so go, she’s like on the floor clutching Ellen’s leg and you can see this moment of realization on her face, like why am I hanging on to you, you did this.

    • OH NO! It’s probably illegal to have cameras in bathrooms so that makes me think they must all be in on it.

    • No, I thought of that too. But I assume it was a temporary camera set up for that specific reason. And as soon as she came in and they scared her it would be removed.

    • I think it was temporary for this joke. I also noticed that Ellen IMMEDIATELY jumped out when Sarah walked in, so there was no time for it to get inappropriate.

  2. I have coulrophobia so the the still and the end of the video freaked me out but stil 100% worth it! haha, this made my Tuesday..nah probably my week!

  3. I’m at around 1:45 when she just puts her head on her knee and also around 2:08 when she just randomly lets out another scream

  4. I’m Sarah at the end trying to say “it’s a great show you guys” from under the table.

    She did what she could.

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