Shane Gillis' ESPY Jokes Signal Death Of Woke Sports | Bobby Burack

Imagine Disney selecting once-canceled comedian Shane Gillis as host of the ESPY Awards show five years ago. It never would have happened.

In 2019, Gillis was fired from "SNL" after multiple clips resurfaced of him cracking jokes about Chinatown and gay people. The comedian has spent the past five years mostly unapologetic and barred from Hollywood circles. In that time span, no company has succumbed more to conformity than Disney/ESPN. So it was quite an eye-opener when ESPN announced that Gillis would host the event last month.

Wednesday night, on stage in front of rows of the most elite athletes, Gillis didn't attempt to adapt to the circumstances or the audience in attendance. He was the same Shane Gillis you get at a comedy club or uncensored podcast.

During his opening monologue, he jabbed at the racial tensions in the WNBA. "When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she’s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most, fist-fighting black women," Gillis predicted. 

He then explained how he can relate to Clark better than most. After all, they are "both whites from the Midwest who have nailed a bunch of 3s."

Gillis then joked about illegal immigration. "Joe Rogan actually wanted me to be here to host this award show so that I could capture Adam Silver because Joe thinks he’s an alien," he said. "And Donald Trump wanted me to be here to capture Juan Soto for the same reason."

Though the crowd was hesitant to laugh at jokes about illegal aliens and black women, Gillis impressed them when he poked fun at Aaron Rodgers' vaccine status and alluded to Trump seemingly wanting to distance himself from the Jeffrey Epstein files.

"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... Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted."

Gillis ended the night with a reference to Diddy Parties, as the credits rolled:

"There are no after parties….You guys pigged out on the after parties, and now we're not allowed to have them anymore."

As sports columnist Jason Whitlock observed after this show, July 16, 2025, might be remembered as the day Woke Sports surrendered.

The gatekeepers of sports and sports media have exhausted all resources in setting a standard that excluded the exact type of content and humor Gillis provided at the ESPYs. ESPN would not have even allowed a straight white male to host the show a few years ago, let alone one known to pull no punches.

Of course, Gillis daring to mention black women upset some of the usual suspects. Here is what the always insufferable, once-raunchy-herself Sarah Spain said about his performance:

"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."

But what Spain, Mina Kimes, and Dan Le Batard thought of the jokes doesn't matter. They lost. They lost their stranglehold on sports culture the moment ESPN announced Gillis as host.

For emphasis, compare the 2025 ESPYs to just two years ago, when the award show honored athletes for their contributions to social justice and deceptively edited a clip of Fox News host Will Cain discussing equal pay.

Perhaps the fact that various athletes performed the Trump dance on the field last fall was the first vivid sign of the woke losing its grip on sports. Put simply, not a single athlete would've dared to do so between 2016 and 2023.

However, there were other signs. In 2022, Sage Steele finally fought back. She sued Disney, her employer, for suppressing her free speech rights. In the fall, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy announced his support for Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Nick Bosa wore a MAGA hat on the field during a postgame interview on NBC.

Elsewhere, Pat McAfee platformed Aaron Rodgers on ESPN, despite his colleagues calling him too right-wing and conspiratorial. Patrick Mahomes, arguably the most powerful athlete in America, refused to comment on social issues, despite constant pressure from the press. Saquon Barkley posed with Trump at the White House.

Woke Sports lost because people like Steele, Bosa, Barkley, and Rodgers showed the rest of the country they were not alone. They were not even in the minority.

Donald Trump also proved that by sweeping all seven swing states in November, despite a lengthy list of high-profile athletes endorsing Kamala Harris.

ESPN/Disney took notice. 

Executives understood Gillis would offend certain circles and make a crowd of Los Angeles elites uncomfortable. However, they now understand there's a whole world outside those circles. Just like there are many sports fans who support Trump, there are many who loathe cancel culture, DEI, and the types of jokes allowed at the BET Awards.

For the first time in at least five years, ESPN catered to the rest of the country during the ESPYs. The culture shift is real. It's palpable. And the fall of Woke Sports is further proof of that.