ESPN
Shane Gillis was the host of the ESPY Awards on Wednesday night and the comedian did exactly what everyone expected him to do: made some jokes that made the ESPY crowd sweat.
Gillis has tons of viral moments during his opening monologue, including a joke where he mocked Donald Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein list and January 6, also and made a crack about Caitlin Clark “fist-fighting Black women.”
Another notable moment is when Gillis announced that WNBA All-Star Brittney Hicks was in attendance, only to have the camera cut to a different Black woman before cracking that he knew no one in the crowd would know if she was actually a WNBA player or not.
Comedian Shane Gillis tricked the ESPY Awards crowd into cheering for a fake WNBA player
“Four-time WNBA All-Star Brittany Hicks is here, give it up for Brittany everybody,” Gillis opened the joke.
As the camera cut to an applauding Black lady in the crowd, Gillis then said:
“I’m joking around — that’s my friends wife. I knew none of you knew WNBA players.”
Shane Gillis is a legend pic.twitter.com/BF0O2Lxair
— 〽️〽️Ned 〽️〽️ (@NeddyNederlandr) July 17, 2025
That wasn’t the only WNBA barb Gillis had during his monologue, as he also made a joke about Caitlin Clark.
“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,” he said.
The 37-year-old Gillis is beginning to branch out beyond just stand-up comedy — although he’s only released two proper stand-up specials, one in 2021 and the other in 2023 — as his Netflix sketch comedy series Tires was recently renewed for a third season.
Gillis is also also set to have a role in the David O. Russell-directed film Madden alongside Nicolas Cage, whose playing John Madden, and Christian Bale as Al Davis.