Dan Le Batard: Shane Gillis' Karl-Anthony Towns Joke Was Inconsiderate Toward Gay People
During ESPYs monologue, comedian flamboyantly shouted "Hey girrrrl" while staring at the Knicks' star player in attendance
Earlier this week, we wrote about how Shane Gillis' role at the 2025 ESPYs signaled the end of woke sports. Disney/ESPN would never have asked a once-canceled comedian of Gillis' ilk to host the event three years ago. But times have changed. Cancel culture is a shell of its former self.
That, of course, has the lead beneficiaries of woke sports up in arms – like former ESPN radio host Dan Le Batard.
We would've guessed that Le Batard would first complain about Gillis making a joke about black women, the WNBA, or illegal immigration. However, Le Batard threw us a curveball by first feigning outrage over Gillis' jab at New York Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns.
During his monologue, Gillis flamboyantly shouted "Hey girrrrl" while staring at Towns in attendance:
The line was seemingly a reference to Anthony Towns' feminine voice, for which he's commonly mocked on social media. Le Batard didn't appreciate that.
"The part we can agree on, I hope, well maybe we can’t agree on it, ‘Karl-Anthony Towns, hey girl.’ What’s clever about that?" Le Batard complained on his show. "How does that make gay people feel? How does that make Karl-Anthony Towns feel?"
Who cares?
Gillis is a comedian. Are gay people off limits to comedians?
At OutKick, we are consistent in our defense of comedy. We even defended "SNL" for joking about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Comedy is supposed to be cringe, raunchy, and uncomfortable.
Policing comedy is the first step toward tyranny. And it should alarm everyone that dolts like Le Batard and Sarah Spain believe certain groups ought to be excluded from the bud of comedic jokes.
"In a year of crazy growth for women's sports choosing an ESPYs host who doesn't even try to make clever jokes about women athletes (he at least *attempted* for the men) he goes with hacky ‘no one knows the WNBA’ bits, ‘Pinoe is a bad time’ & repeatedly insults Black women. COOL." Spain posted on X on Thursday.
It's all so pathetic.
No one should be safe from comedians, not white people, black people, gays, trans people, Jews, Christians, fat people, men, women, criminals, victims, or woke people.
Maybe children are the exception. Maybe.
By the way, how insufferable has Le Batard become? He used to be funny, likable, and sane. Now, he's just bitter, offended, and lame.
Earlier this month, he apologized to his offended listeners for "humanizing" Donald Trump after airing old interviews of the president on the show.