Michelle Obama and Amy Poehler Dunk On Ellen DeGeneres For Past Stunt (2025)

Good Hang with Amy Poehler

The “Becoming” author recounted the interaction during an appearance on Amy Poehler’s new podcast, “Good Hang.”

The two talked about growing older and exercising when Poehler asked Obama if she did push-ups.

“Well now, I do ― I do them on my knees,” Obama said. “This is another thing, I don’t need to, you know, do regular push-ups. I have nothing to prove. But I can do push-ups on my knees, I can do a lot of those.”

“But you can do regular push-ups too,” Poehler said.

“I can, but it’s hard. I think [with] my arm length, I don’t go all the way down,” Obama, 5’10, shared.

“You know who pointed that out? Was Ellen [DeGeneres],” Obama said, while Poehler turned to the camera and deadpanned, “Sounds like Ellen.”

The two broke into laughter, along with the crew.

“My first term, she challenged me to a push-up competition,” Obama said, as Poehler smiled and shook her head in apparent disbelief.

“I’m the first lady, you know,” Obama said. “And she heard that I worked out... So I’m on her show doing push-ups and I did more push-ups than her, but she still says ‘I didn’t go down all the way.’”

Obama added, “But anatomically, I don’t think I really can. My arms are very long, and she’s a much smaller person than me.”

Obama even appeared to talk a little smack before their competition.

“How many push-ups can you do? ’Cause I like to do a push-up,” DeGeneres said on her show at the time.

“I can do some. Can you?” Obama responded before adding, “I know you’ve got these back issues.”

You can watch it all go down below: