Comedian Shane Gillis hosted Wednesday night's ESPY Awards celebrating the best and brightest from around the sports world. As expected, he delivered a boundary-pushing monologue that didn't play it safe. Which, one would figure, is exactly what ESPN should have expected after the tapped him to emcee the event.
Gillis cast a wide net with his jokes, touching on everything from Caitlin Clark to Donald Trump to Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson. One's mileage may vary because, well, there were disparate reactions for those in attendance at the Los Angeles event.
There will surely be several breakout posts and simmering controversies to trail the monologue and for people to argue about. But to do that one needs to actually see what Gillis did up there.
Below is his full monologue.
Shane Gillis’s full ESPYS monologue
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) July 17, 2025
What was your favorite joke? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/XdaRwjYQK0
Love it or hate it, people are talking about the ESPYs. It being the slowest week of the year on the sporting calendar doesn't hurt. And that sort of seems like the goal of turning over editorial control to Gillis, who has proven to move the needle—even if it's impossible to predict which way it will point.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Shane Gillis Delivers Controversial Monologue at 2025 ESPYS.
