Comedian Shane Gillis tricked the audience at the 2025 ESPY Awards by introducing his friend’s wife, Brittany Hicks, as a fictional four-time WNBA All-Star.

Shane Gillis joked about Shedeur Sanders’ jersey retirement at the ESPYS, reigniting debates over nepotism and his impact at Colorado.

Benny Johnson is finding himself on the receiving end of a flood of mockery after cheering on Shane Gillis’ edgy ESPY monologue and claiming the comic called the January 6 Capitol attack “staged,” prompting critics to ridicule the MAGA podcaster for obviously misunderstanding Gillis’ joke.

Shane Gillis made it clear that he had nothing to do with the DeShaun Watson massage joke at the 2025 ESPYs. While hosting the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 16, Gillis, 37, initially said he wanted to “skip that joke” about Watson, 29, before reluctantly mentioning it on stage.

The ESPYS awards show took place last night at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and the event that’s put on by ESPN (thus Disney) was broadcast live on ABC. For those that are familiar with Shane Gillis’ typical material… it doesn’t exactly always line up with the values and “safety guardrails” of a Disney production.

As the NFL season approaches, Will Howard is still in the conversation, barely as the potential No. 2 quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But while Howard tries to climb the depth chart in Pittsburgh,

Shane Gillis targeted Bill Belichick at the ESPYs. Gillis joked about Belichick's relationship with Jordon Hudson. The jokes referenced their age gap.

Some crowd members booed as Gillis struggled through his ESPYs monologue, telling the crowd at one point to "lighten up"