Elle Duncan Offers Ridiculous Defense, No Apology For Crass Joke
The ESPN anchor stood by her "No D" joke she made during the WNBA All-Star Game.
ESPN anchor Elle Duncan is one of the most consistently annoying and troublesome personalities employed by the network, and that’s saying something.
As OutKick’s Bobby Burack has pointed out, Duncan has a long history of instances in which she has crossed the line with her on-air comments. She added to her ledger on the broadcast of the WNBA All-Star game last week, where she made a penis joke for the world to hear.
"We hope it gets a little bit more competitive," Duncan said of the first half. "Because like a girls’ trip to Cancun, right now, there’s no D."
On Thursday (several days after the joke), Duncan addressed her joke on an episode of "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz." There wasn’t a hint of remorse in her views about the joke.
"My thing with the Cancun joke is, I feel like whenever I say something, it’s like sometimes a reintroduction for some people who clearly don’t know me or my work over the last 10 years," Duncan said, according to Awful Announcing.
So making inappropriate jokes for 10 years justifies doing it again in the present? Got it.
Duncan also doesn’t mind if her joke causes some younger children to wonder what a "D" is, because in her mind, kids should already know about that anyway.
"The funny part to me, y’all, has been the people who are like, ‘What am I supposed to say to my children?'" Duncan added. "I’m like, ‘Well if you have to talk to your children about the fact that ‘D’ is a slang word for a penis, then I hope that I was able to help you have that conversation with your child who’s old enough to watch basketball.’ Because my 4-year-old knows what a penis is."
"It’s so silly to me. The idea that this is groundbreaking or somehow completely inappropriate in the landscape that we live in right now is just wild to me. I was a little blown, to be real."
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK - MAY 09: Host Elle Duncan speaks during the 2024 espnW New York Summit at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge on May 09, 2024 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Another sex joke, really?
Duncan is right, we do live in a hypersexualized society (which causes a plethora of issues, but I digress). However, that does not give her license to make sexualized jokes on air, especially if a younger generation of fans is watching. Do they know what a penis is? Probably. But they don’t need to know the crass slang term for it, or add the layer of a girl’s trip to it either.
Duncan isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, she’ll be with ESPN for a while (you can’t win them all). But at the very least, I hope her crass sex jokes disappear in short order.