17 Times Ellen DeGeneres Hilariously Scared Her Celebrity Guests

Ellen DeGeneres is the ultimate scream queen — but not in the way you think. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, the longtime talk show host is known to inflict terror on her unsuspecting celebrity guests in the most hilarious ways possible.

From Sarah Paulson and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift, see which stars have fallen prey to DeGeneres’ scary-awesome hijinks.

Halsey

Halsey was too distracted by Ellen’s question about her boyfriend, Evan Peters, to anticipate the host’s latest scare.

Saoirse Ronan

Poor Saoirse had a feeling that she would be scared on the show (and even almost spoiled it by putting her coffee mug onto the table that people often pop out of) but she had no idea it would happen twice!

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

Diddy swore up and down he wasn’t afraid of clowns … until one popped up and yelled right next to him.

Sarah Paulson

To be fair, if we were confronted with a killer clown, we’d hide under the table, too.

Lea Michele

“That’s it, I’m not coming back,” the Scream Queens actress jokingly told DeGeneres upon coming face to face with Michael Myers.

Selena Gomez

So nice (?), the talk show host had to do it twice.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Nothing beats getting scared by your costar, as Ferguson found out when his Modern Family husband Eric Stonestreet snuck up behind him.

Halle Berry

Berry: “That was so mean.”
DeGeneres: “No, it was fun!”

Richard Simmons

“Jesus, have mercy. You scared me to death,” the fitness guru said after DeGeneres jumped out at him in the bathroom.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

When DeGeneres commented on The Rock’s low-key reaction, he responded: “I’m a man and a half, that didn’t scare me.”

Carrie Underwood

This is how DeGeneres celebrated the country crooner’s 10th appearance on her talk show.

Julie Bowen

The Modern Family star actually jumped out of her seat, she was so freaked out.

Jennifer Lopez

Props to DeGeneres for scaring the singer-dancer-actress with a Yankees player lookalike à la her beau, Alex Rodriguez.

Taylor Swift

“That was the best one yet,” DeGeneres recounted of the moment she scared the singer in her dressing room.

Jack Black

“I haven’t been so scared in quite some time,” noted the actor of his interaction with a man dressed as a raccoon.

Megan Fox

Because there’s nothing scarier than a larger-than-life banana, according to the actress.

Kellie Pickler

“We got you real good,” said the host. She did, indeed.