The biggest endorsement of his performance yet.
Shane Gillis served as the host for the 2025 ESPY Awards, and it’s going to go down as one of the all-time great awards show performances from any host.
Of course he’s one of the biggest names in comedy right now, so it was only natural to have him try to boost the show’s sagging ratings, even if ESPN was probably a little nervous about what he would have to say. But Gillis opened the show with an absolutely hilarious monologue, one that was widely praised by viewers but didn’t seem to be as well received by those in the crowd.
The whole thing was a masterclass, with Gillis making deportation comments about Donald Trump and Juan Soto, roasting Bill Belichick for his much younger girlfriend Jordon Hudson, joking about Shedeur Sanders having his jersey retired by Colorado, and even referencing the whole Jeffrey Epstein client list situation that’s been circulating online over recent weeks.
It seems that his best jokes, however, were reserved for the WNBA.
At one point, Gillis joked that WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark would be working at Waffle House after retiring the league so she could “continue doing what she loves most: Fist fighting black women.” And in maybe the best moment of the night, the comedian had the entire crowd applauding former four-time WNBA All-Star Brittney Hicks – who was actually just his friend’s wife, proving that “none of you knew WNBA players.”
The whole thing went over like a fart in an elevator for the uptight crowd in the room and the woke scolds in the media. But for everybody else, it was brilliant.
So it’s not really any surprise that the comedic geniuses on The View didn’t like it.
The hosts of the daytime talk show discussed the performance last week on their show, and of course they didn’t have many good things to say about it.
According to Joy Behar, who’s obviously known for her comedy (that was sarcasm if you couldn’t tell):
“Basically when you do an awards show they’re there to hear their name called. They’re not there to laugh.”
And Whoopi Goldberg agreed, saying that the crowd was only there to know if they won or not – with Behar acknowledging how hard it is to do stand-up comedy and saying that she doesn’t do it anymore and instead puts her “creativity” into her plays instead.
Yeah, no, great call Joy, I’m sure your plays are great, I can’t wait to check them out.
You can see the full reaction to the monologue here:
But anyway, this week on his podcast Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast, Gillis addressed the criticism from the hosts of The View by mocking them and their understanding of comedy:
“I wish I was watching The View. I know we’re having fun right now, I just wish I was watching The View so that I could understand comedy the way Joy Behar does. You know, hilarious comedian Joy Behar? What was that hilarious joke she told that everybody likes? Never once, ever?”
He also acknowledged that his monologue wasn’t meant to appeal to their humor:
“No, I get it. They didn’t like it. It wasn’t for them. If they liked it I would have been like, ‘Oh, that sucked.’
It’s specifically designed for them to go, ‘I didn’t like it.'”
Exactly why it was so funny.
