Comedian Shane Gillis was met with mixed reactions from the crowd as he hosted the ESPYs on Wednesday night, though he did make one move that “The View” host and former stand-up comedian Joy Behar didn’t appreciate.

Early on in his monologue, Gillis made a joke about Donald Trump’s desire to host a UFC fight at the White House, with the punchline being “the last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died.” When the joke fell flat but got some scattered applause, Gillis told the crowd, “you don’t have to do that. It was fine, I didn’t write it.”

And that shade toward his writers irked Behar pretty good.

“Never do that,” she said on Thursday’s episode of the ABC talk show. “Johnny Carson was on the air for, I don’t know, a 100 years? Never once did he say, ‘The writer wrote that bad joke that I just bombed with.’ That’s bad form.”

Her co-hosts largely agreed, with moderator Whoopi Goldberg reminding viewers just how hard hosting an awards show is. She’s experienced it firsthand multiple times.

“The first five minutes is for you, whoever the host is,” Whoopi explained. “The first five minutes of any awards show is for you, to get to know the audience, and the rest of that time, people want to know ‘Did I win?’”

Behar agreed, saying that no one in the crowd is there to laugh. Meanwhile, host Alyssa Farah Griffin noted that she was not surprised by Gillis’ blunders, given his style of humor and his history.

“I think Shane Gillis is very funny but I watch him like I watch horror movies, like this,” she said, using her fingers as a lattice over her eyes. “Because I’m like, what is he going to say, is he going to make me deeply uncomfortable, or am I going to laugh hysterically?”

“The View” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.

Comedian Shane Gillis jabs Trump on Epstein at ESPYs

Sarah Fortinsky
·3 min read

Comedian Shane Gillis jabs Trump on Epstein at ESPYs

Comedian Shane Gillis on Wednesday evening poked fun at President Trump over his administration’s handling of the files related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

While hosting the 2025 ESPY Awards, Gillis first knocked Trump for his role surrounding the Jan. 6. 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn,” he said. “The last time he staged a fight in D.C., [former Vice President] Mike Pence almost died.”

Gillis then told the audience he didn’t personally write that joke.

He added: “Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted.”

“Probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually,” the comedian added. “Let’s move on as a country and ignore that.”

The joke riffs on Trump’s insistence that the focus on documents connected to Epstein is a “hoax” started by Democrats. Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on allegations of leading a sex trafficking operating involving minors. His August 2019 death in a New York City jail was ruled a suicide.

“Some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats’ work,” the president said earlier Wednesday during an Oval Office meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain.

“I call it the Epstein hoax. Takes a lot of time and effort. Instead of talking about the great achievements we’ve had. … They’re wasting their time with a guy who obviously had some very serious problems, who died three, four years ago,” he added, “I’d rather talk about the success we have with the economy.”

Prominent Republicans and Trump supporters, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have in recent days called for greater transparency from the administration around files related to Epstein. Right-wing activist and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), ardent allies of the president, have also called for a special counsel to review the administration’s handling of the case.

The Justice Department and FBI issued a joint memo last week that concluded Epstein did not have a client list — or a list of names he kept to use as blackmail in the future. It also reaffirmed the medical examiner’s determination that the late financier’s death was a suicide.

The report seemingly contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comments in February when she suggested a client list was already on her desk awaiting review. The Trump administration has doubled down on the findings and said Bondi meant the case files as a whole.

The findings incensed members of the MAGA movement, who have for years pushed conspiracy theories about how Epstein died and claims that prominent Democrats and other well-known figures would be tied to the case.

Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges, ran in high-powered circles with figures that included Trump, former President Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew and a number of other celebrities and ultrawealthy people. Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been convicted of sex trafficking and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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