Shane Gillis' 10 Best Jokes at the ESPY Awards (Critic's Picks)
More from Billboard
YURIYAN RETRIEVER Talks Debut Solo Single & Ambition to Become a Genre of Her Own
Questlove to Be Honored With 'SummerStage Icon Award' at 2025 City Parks Foundation Benefit
'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Ending After 2025-26 Season: 'I Found Out Just Last Night,' Host Says
Even before the stand-up star's monologue was over, the internet was awash in shocked posts about his jokes — and the cameras at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles showed plenty of double takes in the audience — but from a pure comedy perspective, Gillis killed way more than he missed, and his onstage moments brought an energy and tension to a production that was filled with many canned acceptance speeches that were oddly free of emotion.
When a joke didn't land or drew a mixed response — there were some boos in the crowd — Gillis sometimes claimed he hadn't written it. But given his unapologetic comic style, he might have been tweaking another comic, Jo Koy, who blamed his writers for the many jokes that bombed during his monologue at the 2024 Golden Globes.
Throughout the ceremony, which included performances by Clipse, Busta Rhymes and GELO, Gillis — who hails from Mechanicsburg, Pa.,(about a two-hour drive from Philadelphia), namechecked his favorite NFL team, the Eagles, with, 'Go Birds,' and late in the production went all out when comparing the team to the other nominees for the best team ESPY.
'I bet you guys think, as an Eagles fan, I'm going to trash all of the other nominees. Far from it,' Gillis said with his trademark wait-for-it grin. 'I think this race is wide open,' he said before comparing the team to the other candidates and one that was not. 'One of the nominees for the best team this year is the Dallas Cowboys. No, I'm joking, obviously. Dallas sucks,' he said, uttering the chant usually heard at games between the Eagles and their decades-long rival. 'Only real teams are up for best team.'
The Eagles did take home the best team award, as well as the best play and best NFL player honors for running back Saquon Barkley and his mind-blowing reverse hurdle over Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jarrian Jones last season.
Gillis' boosterism was not lost on the Eagles' offensive tackle Jordan Mailata, who accepted the best team award and dubbed the comedian the team's 'sixth offensive lineman' — which, if it wasn't a joke, could have been.
For those who didn't catch the awards, here are Gillis' 10 best jokes in descending order. And while the saying goes that if a joke needs to be explained, it's not funny, background is included for those who don't follow sports.
10. Norm Macdonald
'There's one thing I want to say before I get out of here, and this is a dumb joke, you guys aren't going to like it — it's just a Norm Macdonald joke that I loved when he hosted the ESPYS [in 1998] and I'm going to do it now,' Gillis said. '[Colorado Buffalo] Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy this year. He's the first defensive player since Charles Woodson to win the Heisman. Congratulations, Travis Hunter. Winning the Heisman, that's something they can never take away from you, unless you kill your wife and a waiter. In which case, they can take that away from you.'
Sportsplainer: Although O.J. Simpson was acquitted in criminal court of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman — who was a waiter — in 1997, a civil trial found him liable for their deaths, and the Heisman he won in 1968, was auctioned off to help pay for the more than $33 million that was award to the victims families in compensatory and punitive damages.
It's also worth noting that Macdonald, who died in 2021, is a hero among comics for his deadpan, unflinching comedy, which during his stint as Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update anchor often included him referring to Simpson as a 'murderer' with no 'alleged' attached. The same year that Macdonald hosted the ESPYs, Don Ohlmeyer, the president of NBC's West coast division, removed Macdonald as Update anchor, citing declining ratings. Macdonald alleged, however, that the real reason had to do with Ohlmeyer's friendship with Simpson.
9. Jake Paul
'It's crazy to be in this room with so many legends,' Gillis said. 'Sugar Ray Leonard's here, hell yeah. Sugar Ray, you're the man, but in 10 years, Jake Paul's gonna try to knock you out, so take it easy.'
Sportsplainer: A number of the 28-year-old social media star-turned-boxer's fights have pitted him against Paul's last two fights pitted him against aging pugilists born in the 1980s (Tyron Woodley), '70s (Anderson Silva) and even '60s (Mike Tyson), which some attribute to his 12-1 record. Leonard was born in 1956, a decade that Paul has yet to exploit.
8. WNBA
'Four-time WNBA all-star Brittany Hicks is here. Give it up for Brittany, everybody. I'm joking around, that's my friend's wife. I knew none of you knew WNBA players. That's crazy you [clapped for] it.'
Sportsplainer: Despite a surfeit of press reporting that the WNBA now enjoys the same level of popularity as the male version, Gillis' joke may have proven otherwise. The crowd did give it up, mildly, for Hicks, but she's the wife of his comedian friend Matt McCusker and not in the WNBA.
7. Shedeur Sanders
'Shedeur Sanders had his jersey number retired at Colorado this year, and people are saying it's because of nepotism, because of his father, and it's not. It's because he went 13 and 12 over his career and he almost won the Alamo Bowl. Definitely not nepotism, right?'
Sportsplainer: Sanders wasn't in the ESPYs audience, which was probably a good thing. He's already endured plenty of jibes for being a fifth-round draft pick (by the Cleveland Browns) after much speculation that he was destined to be chosen in the first. That was followed by conjecture that his father, Deion Sanders, who coached his son's team, the University of Colorado Boulder's Buffaloes during the two seasons he was there, had hurt Shedeur's prospects by over-hyping him behind the scenes.
The school's decision to retire Shedeur's jersey after just two seasons also proved controversial given his stats, and because former Buffaloes QB Darian Hagan, who had a 28-5-2 record and took the team to the national championship in 1990, has not had his jersey retired. To be fair to Shedeur, the Buffaloes went 1-11 the season before he arrived, and he has broken over 100 school records. (And his actual win-loss record is 13-11.)
6. Caitlin Clark
'Caitlin Clark, she and I have a lot in common. We're both whites from the Midwest who have nailed a bunch of threes.'
Sportsplainer: Although Clark's 29% WNBA three-point basket average is down from the 34% she posted last year, she remains near the top of the competition and will participate in the three-point contest that takes place July 17 during the upcoming WNBA All-Star Weekend. Gillis' was talking about a different kind of scoring when he referenced himself, which resulted in some wincing and murmuring from the crowd. But as he said in response, 'Lighten up a little, this is not serious.'
5. DeShaun Watson
'Skip that joke. Please skip that joke. All right bring it back. I'll tell that joke. I didn't write this. 'Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,' is what they say when DeShaun Watson gets a massage.'
Sportsplainer: This one ranks high for sheer ballsiness. Gillis made the joke — which name-checks the title of a Busta Rhymes track — following Rhymes performance on the show, and the audience sounded like it had been punched in the gut. The reason: Beginning in 2021, more than 20 women filed civil lawsuits accusing the former Houston Texans quarterback of sexually inappropriate conduct or sexual assault during massages. (In 2021, Watson wrote on X that he had 'never treated any woman with anything [other] than the utmost respect.' and settled most of the suits.) 'I disagree as well,' Gillis said with a smile when he heard the reaction. 'I swear to god I didn't want to tell it.' But he did.
4. Aaron Rodgers
'Aaron Rodgers didn't take the [Covid 19] vaccine because he predicted it would be bad for him. And then he joined the New York Jets. So maybe he wasn't right about everything.'
Sportsplainer: Rodgers sat out his first season with the Jets after suffering an Achilles injury in the first game. During the 2024 season, he led the team to a dismal 5-12 record and was released early this year. He is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
3. Juan Soto
'Joe Rogan actually wanted me to be here to host this award show so that I could capture [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver because Joe thinks he's an alien. And Donald Trump wanted me to be here to capture Juan Soto for the same reason.'
Sportsplainer: Actually, this was more of a political joke about the Trump administration's reportedly indiscriminate arrests of immigrants than a poke at the New York Mets' Dominican outfielder, whose $765 million contract is the largest in sports history.
2. Jeffrey Epstein
'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,' Gillis said. 'Actually, there was supposed to be an [Jeffrey] Epstein joke here, but it got deleted. Must have probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually. Let's move on as a country and ignore that.'
Sportsplainer: An even-more-timely Trump joke about the U.S. president and his administration's backtracking on its promises to reveal all about the late sex offender Epstein, which has sparked a firestorm of criticism from the MAGA media and the commander-in-chief's conspiracy-minded supporters, who are convinced there exists a list of powerful figures who joined Epstein in sexually abusing minors, and that the financier did not commit suicide in prison but rather was murdered.
1. Bill Belichick
'Shohei Ohtani couldn't make it tonight. Man, I hope his interpreter didn't bet that he was going to be here. Shohei is a once-in-a-generation talent. No one's been able to do what he does at so many positions. Pitcher, hitter and bookie. A bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bedtime. They do. They read, uh, The Very Horny Caterpillar, The Little Engine That Could But Needed a Pill First, and of course, the classic Goodnight Boobs.'
Sportsplainer: 'That was my favorite one,' Gillis said after telling the joke, and the burst of laughter that came back to him said the audience agreed. The Ohtani lead-in was a throwaway reference to the Los Angeles Dodger phenomenon's interpreter, who was sentenced to nearly 5 years in federal prison for stealing $17 million from the Major League superstar and using the ill-gotten gains to place illegal bets.
The punchline that killed was Gillis' reference to the 73-year-old former head coach of the New England Patriots (now guiding the University of North Carolina's football team) and his new 24-year-old girlfriend, former cheerleader Jordon Hudson.
Best of Billboard
Drake's Historic Chart Week: How He Matched The Beatles' 57-Year-Old Record
How Elton John Keeps Up His Hot 100 Hot Streak With Dua Lipa Duet 'Cold Heart'
Pink's 'All I Know So Far' Has Us Looking Back at the History of Live Music on the Charts
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
HANA's ‘Blue Jeans' Bows at No. 1 With Biggest Week for Any Act in 2025 on Japan Hot 100
HANA's 'Blue Jeans' debuts at No. 1 on this week's Billboard Japan Hot 100, on the chart released July 23. The track included in the new girl group's second CD single, released on the 16th, marked the highest total weekly points for any song during this year's tracking period. It dominated downloads, streaming and video views, while coming in at No. 3 for sales and No. 8 for radio airplay. It also racked up the highest number of weekly streams for this year, at 16,247,580 streams. More from Billboard Jamal Roberts Shares How His Life Changed Since Winning 'Idol' & Why He Never Wants to Leave 'Mississippi' Daniel Caesar Talks Working With 'Genius' Tyler, the Creator, Says Justin Bieber 'Can Sing His A- Off' Here's Why Drake Fans Think New Music Is Coming Tonight The top 3 songs with the highest weekly points this year are: 1. HANA, 'Blue Jeans,' 19,152 points2. BE:FIRST, 'GRIT,' 16,398 points3. BE:FIRST, 'Spacecraft,' 16,125 points The top 3 for highest weekly streams this year are:1. HANA, 'Blue Jeans,' 16,247,580 streams2. Mrs. GREEN APPLE, 'Lilac,' 15,713,177 streams (on the chart released Jan. 15)3. Mrs. GREEN APPLE, 'Lilac,' 14,041,086 streams (on the chart released Jan. 22) HANA dominated the top 2 spots this week on the Japan Hot 100, with its debut single 'ROSE' rising four notches to No. 2. CD sales gained 257%, streaming 118%, downloads 121%, and karaoke 130% compared to the week before. The septet has three songs charting in the top 10 this week, with 'Burning Flower' coming in at No. 9. Panda Dragon's 'Maji Majinai' debuts at No. 3. The five-member boy band's first single after signing with Universal Music launched with 92,518 CDs to hit No. 1 for sales. Mrs. GREEN APPLE's 'Darling' follows at No. 4 and 'KUSUSHIKI' at No. 5. The former moves 8-4 to return to the top 5 after about three and a half months, powered by a surge in radio (about 16 times more than last week) and gains in downloads and karaoke. The latter comes in at No. 2 for streaming, No. 6 for video, No. 19 for downloads, and No. 20 for karaoke. Elsewhere on the Japan Hot 100, Kana Nishino's iconic hit from 2010, 'Aitakute Aitakute,' comes in at No. 59. One of the biggest J-pop songstresses from that decade, the singer-songwriter returned to showbiz last year after a break since 2019. The 36-year-old star recently dropped a performance of the longing ballad on THE FIRST TAKE YouTube channel, which led to an increase in downloads, streaming, videos, and karaoke. Also, with the summer fireworks season underway, another veteran singer-songwriter's hit from 1999, aiko's 'Hanabi,' is also moving steadily up the chart. The poetic classic about an ending love climbs from No. 97 to No. 84 to No. 80 this week, with streaming, video, and karaoke on the rise. The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data. See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from July 14 to 20, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan's English X account. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Four Decades of 'Madonna': A Look Back at the Queen of Pop's Debut Album on the Charts Chart Rewind: In 1990, Madonna Was in 'Vogue' Atop the Hot 100 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Mariah Carey Announces Release Date for 16th Studio Album, ‘Here For It All'
Mariah Carey is Here For It All. The pop icon announced the title and release date of her 16th album on Monday morning (July 21), revealing that the LP fans have been calling 'MC16' will drop on Sept. 26. The news came in a brief Instagram video in which MC flipped her hair back and walked slowly in shiny black leather high-heeled boots and black cat suit in front of a giant mural of herself, with the album title spelled out over and over in black and white behind her. It ended with a brief snippet of the title track in which Carey crooned, 'I'm here for it all!' The final image appears to be the album's cover picture, featuring a broadly smiling Carey, eyes closed, filling up most of the page, her hair blowing in the wind as she holds her left arm up to her cheek and her right hand up to her chest. More from Billboard Mariah Carey Teases 'Sugar Sweet' Summer Single Tyler, The Creator Releases 'Don't Tap the Glass' Album: Stream It Now Billy Corgan Reacts to MCR's Cover of Smashing Pumpkins Classic So far, in June Carey dropped the single 'Type Dangerous' — and, recently, an accompanying EP featuring collabs with Method Mad, Big Sean, DJ Snake and others — and previewed the song 'Sugar Sweet' from the follow-up to her 2018 Caution album. Carey told Apple Music last month that the album was 'finished,' but at press time a full track listing had not yet been announced. The singer earned her milestone 50th Billboard Hot 100 hit when 'Type Dangerous' debuted at No. 95 on the singles tally last month. The track is her first nonseasonal song to reach the Hot 100 since 'I Don't' with YG logged a week on the list in Feb. 25, 2017. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mariah Carey Keeps It Nice, Neat, ‘Sugar Sweet' on New Single with Shenseea & Kehlani: Stream It Now
Mariah Carey has cooked up another sweet fantasy with 'Sugar Sweet,' her latest single featuring Shenseea and Kehlani that dropped on Friday (July 25). 'Sugar Sweet' is the second single released ahead of Carey's 16th studio album Here For It All, which drops Sept. 26 via gamma. In June, she shared the lead single 'Type Dangerous,' as well as an accompanying remix EP featuring collaborations with Busta Rhymes, Method Man and Red Man; Big Sean; DJ Snake and Luísa Sonza. 'Type Dangerous,' which samples Eric B. & Rakim's 1986 track 'Eric B. Is President,' became her 50th Billboard Hot 100 hit, reaching No. 95. It also entered the top 10 of R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. More from Billboard Mariah Carey Announces Release Date for 16th Studio Album, 'Here For It All' Britney or Whitney? 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire' Hot 100 Question Trips Up Drew Carey, Aisha Tyler & Audience Kesha Reveals Cassie Ventura Sent Her Flowers Ahead of MSG Concert: 'Love You Sweet Girl' At the start of this month, the elusive chanteuse revealed she had finished Here For It All during a sit-down interview with Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden at the new Apple Music Studios in Los Angeles during a special live broadcast to celebrate the streaming platform's 10th anniversary. Mimi said she was 'very excited' about 'Sugar Sweet' because 'it's very summery. I like the beat as well.' She also revealed that Here For It All will feature 11 or 12 songs, including 'some Mariah ballads.' Here For It All will arrive seven years after her last studio album, Caution. The 10-track project featured collaborations with Ty Dolla $ign, Slick Rick and Blood Orange, and Gunna. It reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and earned MC her eighth No. 1 project on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Listen to 'Sugar Sweet' below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword