Shane Gillis delivered quite a controversial opening monologue at the 2025 ESPY Awards on July 16.
Held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the event got a jolt of old-school roast-style comedy, and boy, did it ruffle some feathers.
Gillis, a comedian who’s made a career out of pushing buttons, delivered a 10-minute set that poked fun at athletes, politicians, and just about every taboo topic under the sun.
The media has called it “racially charged,” “insensitive,” and “tone-deaf.” Social media lit up with hot takes, hashtags, and hand-wringing.
The Jokes Everyone’s Talking About
Inarguably, it was the Caitlin Clark joke that drew the most fire.
Gillis said that when the WNBA star retires, “she’s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist-fighting Black women.”
Critics slammed it as offensive and racist. Outlets like USA Today and NBC’s Today ran headlines calling the joke harmful and insensitive to both Clark and Black players in the WNBA, pointing to the league’s ongoing battle with online hate.
Then came the Trump line. Gillis joked, “Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn. The last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died.”
Some in the audience laughed. Others didn’t. But anyone familiar with Gillis knows he’s made jokes about everyone; no one gets a pass, not even Trump.
He also cracked a jab about the now-deleted Jeffrey Epstein files: “There was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted. Probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed.”
And in another bit, he tricked the audience into cheering for a fake WNBA player, just to make a point about how few people can name one.
Why It Matters
Let’s be honest: comedians used to be allowed to go there.
Think Don Rickles. Think George Carlin. Even Norm Macdonald.
Comedy wasn’t, and has never been, about walking on eggshells. It’s been about saying what everyone was thinking, whether it was polite or not.
Shane Gillis fits in that tradition. He’s not on stage to earn applause from corporate sponsors or progressive pundits. He’s there to shake things up – and clearly, he did.
People forget that he was fired from Saturday Night Live in 2019 before ever appearing on-air, over comments that resurfaced online. But Gillis didn’t go away. He built a fanbase anyway.
Now he’s back on big stages, like when he guest-hosted SNL in 2024 and 2025. The audience keeps showing up because, like it or not, people are tired of the comedy police.
Critics Say He Crossed the Line
Some celebrities in the room looked visibly uncomfortable. The View scolded him for treating the ESPYs like a comedy club. Online, left-leaning voices slammed ESPN for letting him host in the first place.
But as Gillis himself said during the set: “I see a lot of you don’t like me, and that’s okay. That went about exactly how we all thought it was gonna go.”
He knew what was coming. So did ESPN.
Final Thought
Shane Gillis didn’t ruin the ESPYs. He reminded us that comedy is supposed to challenge people.
It doesn’t always need to be nice. It needs to be honest, sometimes brutally.
If award shows can’t handle a few jokes, maybe the problem isn’t the comedian. Maybe it’s that we’ve forgotten how to laugh when something hits close to home.
If ESPN’s ratings bump from the buzz is any clue, we’re pretty sure they’re secretly hoping he comes back next year, too.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
