Shane Gillis is hosting the ESPYs 2025 award, but seems to have gotten off to a bad start. His opening speech has been panned widely on X (formerly Twitter).
Gillis, at the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards (ESPY) awards, slipped in a Jeffrey Epstein joke, hilariously noting that maybe the joke ‘never existed’ – a reference to US President Donald Trump reiterating that the Epstein Files are a hoax.
Despite the topical humour, his speech has not gone down well with many, taking to X to criticise Gillis.
What are people saying about Shane Gillis' ESPYs speech?
{{/usCountry}}Despite the topical humour, his speech has not gone down well with many, taking to X to criticise Gillis.
What are people saying about Shane Gillis' ESPYs speech?
{{/usCountry}}People on X have not had too many good things to say about Gillis' speech, with one user commenting,"Who decided #ShaneGillis was a good fit to host the ESPYs? It’s awkward as hell. These are hardworking athletes. Not Hollywood elites. The humour isn’t hitting."
Another said, “Watching the ESPYs. Never heard of Shane Gillis before tonight. OMG, he’s terrible. Whose idea was it to have him host? Major fail”.
“Took Shane Gillis all of 20 seconds to be a huge disaster #espys,” commented a third.
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One user exclaimed, “Shane Gillis is absolutely bombing this ESPYs monologue. Yikes.” Meanwhile, one user seemed to take joy in Gillis delivering an apparently not-so-impressive speech, saying, “Rushed to my tv to watch Shane Gillis go Lindbergh on his ESPYs monologue and he did not disappoint. Legendary crash and burn. Idk who greenlit that, but it will be memorable.”
However, others were more forthcoming, saying that Gillis delivered a good speech, and it was the people in attendance who were ‘uptight’ and ‘self-important’. Another noted that Gillis' jokes were most likely going over the ‘dumb athletes' heads’.
“Shane Gillis is the only reason I’m watching the ESPYs lol,” one user also claimed.