'Bombing it', 'terrible': Shane Gillis seemingly fails to make a mark with ESPYs opening speech

Shane Gillis slipped in a Jeffrey Epstein joke in his ESPYs opening speech, but didn't seem to impress audiences online.

Updated on: Jul 17, 2025, 07:57:16 IST

By Shuvrajit Das Biswas

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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).

Not everyone on social media was as critical of Shane Gillis' opening speech at the ESPYS, with many praising his humour. (X)

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?

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.

Also Read | Prince Harry's ESPYs Award criticised by war hero's mother

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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shuvrajit Das Biswas
Shuvrajit has over seven years of experience covering US, India, and world news. An English Literature postgraduate from Jadavpur University, Shuvrajit started off covering entertainment, gaming and all things pop culture. There were brief periods away from the media industry, with short stints in content marketing, ed-tech and academic editing. However, the newsroom beckoned and over the last few jobs, Shuvrajit has exceedingly focused on team functioning as well, including tracking news and assigning tasks, working on everyday breaking news, framing detailed coverage plans, and creating immersive and data-driven stories. In his time as a digital journalist, he has covered a Lok Sabha election, multiple state elections, Union Budgets and award ceremonies. He has also helped in planning content for company event panels in the past. For work, Shuvrajit enjoys dabbling with data visualization, editing tools, and AI chatbots and attempts to incorporate AI workflows in everyday tasks. He is deeply interested in geopolitics, sports, films and music. Prompting is a new fascination for Shuvrajit now. Apart from that, he can be found doom-scrolling, sharing memes, or cheering on his favorite football team.Read More

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