If there’s one person who is the greatest at practical jokes, it’s Ellen DeGeneres — the woman knows how to scare you to the point where you’re screaming, laughing, and crying at the same time. That takes talent!

On Tuesday, Ellen decided to pull out the big guns. And by big guns we mean A SCARY CLOWN!

“I promised [Eric] I wouldn’t scare him again because I scare him every single time, every single time,” Ellen said to the audience. “Today I was backstage playing ping-pong so that he would think that there’s no way anything can happen. I’m playing ping-pong, and we had a clown hidden in a box in his room.”

So, while Eric was getting ready for his appearance on the show, a man dressed as a scary clown popped out of a box next to his couch, forcing him to scream: “Motherf**ker!” (we would have screamed more, trust us!)

The rest of it… you have to see for yourself: