{"id":2463566,"date":"2025-07-18T14:56:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shane-gillis-espy-monologue-proves-woke-is-on-the-run\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T14:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:58:19","slug":"shane-gillis-espy-monologue-proves-woke-is-on-the-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shane-gillis-espy-monologue-proves-woke-is-on-the-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Gillis&#8217; ESPY Monologue Proves Woke Is On The Run"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fshane-gillis-espy-monologue-proves-woke-is-on-the-run%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2463566&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Shane Gillis hosted ESPN&#8217;s 2025 ESPYs awards and delivered a bold, unfiltered opening monologue that broke from ESPN and Disney&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nestle-ceo-im-not-a-mega-deal-maker\/\" title=\"Nestle CEO: I\u2019m not a \u2018mega deal\u2019 maker\">traditionally cautious approach<\/a> to &#8220;woke&#8221; culture. He made provocative jokes targeting various <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/guilty-on-all-charges-the-sports-world-reacts-to-the-derek-chauvin-verdict\/\" title=\"Guilty On All Charges: The Sports World Reacts To The Derek Chauvin Verdict\">sports figures<\/a> and cultural topics, signaling a shift away from the era of intense political correctness that has dominated media in recent years. While some audiences reacted less enthusiastically,the decision by ESPN and Disney to feature Gillis marks a recognition that the broader culture is moving past <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/elon-musk-i-got-a-covid-test-four-times-in-one-day-two-came-back-negative-two-came-back-positive-the-daily-wire\/\" title=\"Elon Musk: I Got A COVID Test Four Times In One Day. \u2018Two Came Back Negative, Two Came Back Positive.\u2019 | The Daily Wire\">cancel culture<\/a> and excessive sensitivity. The article argues that society is beginning to reject the power of online outrage and desires more authentic, sometimes edgy humor that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nolte-media-fail-biden-and-harris-unfavorable-ratings-worse-than-trumps\/\" title=\"Nolte: Media Fail ...... Biden and Harris Unfavorable Ratings Worse than Trump&#039;s\">reflects real life<\/a>. Gillis&#8217;s hosting is seen as a prosperous step toward this cultural change, highlighting that entertainment companies are slowly adjusting to new societal attitudes rather than trying to control culture from the top down.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Shane Gillis hosted ESPN&rsquo;s Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards ceremony, better known as the ESPYs, and he did not hold back in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WlUx85soKeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">opening monologue<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>He mocked the audience by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kfcbarstool\/status\/1945670815871107239?s=46\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">calling out<\/a> four-time all-star Brittany Hicks for being in attendance, only to reveal that Brittany is actually a friend&rsquo;s wife, not a player, saying, &ldquo;I knew none of you knew WNBA players.&rdquo; He claimed Joe Rogan wanted him to host so he could capture NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, as Rogan thinks he&rsquo;s an alien. He followed that with a joke about Donald Trump wanting him to capture Juan Soto for the same reason.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He referred to Simone Biles as a leprechaun. He riffed on Caitlin Clark with a bit about how, after she retires from the WNBA, she&rsquo;s going to work at a Waffle House &ldquo;so she can continue doing what she loves most: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >fist fighting black women<\/a>.&rdquo; (If you haven&rsquo;t seen the clip that inspired that one, it&rsquo;s worth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ga6ZsultnK4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">23 seconds<\/a> of your time.) In short, Gillis went on ESPN, a network owned by Disney &mdash; neither of which has wholly embraced the vibe shift &mdash; and not only didn&rsquo;t pander, he showed that wokeness is on the run.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is notable because ESPN has been oddly resistant to the fact that it&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houseofstrauss.com\/p\/im-glad-some-crazy-journalist-scolded\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">no longer 2020<\/a>. The network may have toned down its coverage a bit since 2022, when it was still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/former-espn-colleagues-odds-over-longtime-shows-cancellation-after-claim-went-woke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">all in<\/a> on overt signaling, but as recently as last year, a host was fired in part for her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/former-espn-host-details-firing-after-support-women-against-trans-athletes-i-thought-sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">belief in biology<\/a>. And parent company Disney apparently still thinks it&rsquo;s 2020. The FCC opened an investigation into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2025\/mar\/28\/fcc-disney-abc-dei-investigation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">potentially discriminatory practices<\/a> just this past March. Let&rsquo;s also not forget the <em>Snow White <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/04\/snow-white-bombing-was-the-best-gift-hollywood-could-give-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">debacle<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The entertainment companies seem to be learning the lesson, albeit slowly and belatedly. While the audience didn&rsquo;t enthusiastically respond to most of Gillis&rsquo; opening monologue, the fact that Disney and ESPN chose to go with him and with prewritten, and thus preapproved, jokes shows they&rsquo;re starting to play catch-up to the rest of society.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there are still many out there who are all in on wokeness. You mostly find them impotently shrieking on social media. In the real world, we&rsquo;re over that. We&rsquo;re tired of cancel culture and constantly policing our thoughts and language to avoid being the target of such a campaign. In part, it&rsquo;s because the damage is done. If someone can find you on Google, it&rsquo;s just a hop, skip, and a jump to finding something &ldquo;offensive&rdquo; you&rsquo;ve said or done.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Also, enough people have suffered cancellation &mdash; Shane Gillis, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/shane-gillis-saturday-night-live-fired-now-hosting-rcna137161\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for one<\/a> &mdash; that people are waking up to the fact that you can never be woke enough to avoid the mob. If it&rsquo;s eventually going to come after you regardless, it&rsquo;s better to lean into who you are and amplify it rather than attempting to placate the implacable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Which is what society needs. We need a mass rejection of nonsense. We have to strip the power that online outrage has over us as flesh and blood people. We have to be willing to tell jokes, including ones that don&rsquo;t land, but that actually point out the absurdities of life without consideration of how they&rsquo;ll be treated politically.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Breitbart famously noted that politics is downstream of culture, but what we&rsquo;re starting to see is that those in charge of the culture have lost their ability to shape it. Instead, they&rsquo;re having to respond. Disney, especially, is learning it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/elio-pixar-america-ferrera-director-queer-2-1236301860\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cannot steer the current<\/a> anymore. Instead, it&rsquo;s having to listen to the audience, who will just exit the ride rather than continue to be lectured.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is why Gillis hosting the ESPYs was a success, regardless of how well his act landed. (These writers at People were <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/shane-gillis-struggles-espys-2025-monologue-roasts-simone-biles-jordon-hudson-11770780\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">not fans<\/a>, for example, though at least they referred to the monologue as brave. One assumes they simply forgot to use the more correct woke formulation of &ldquo;stunning and brave&rdquo; rather than omitting the &ldquo;stunning&rdquo; part.) <\/p>\n<p>Regardless, whether you loved, hated, or were ambivalent about his open, you have to admit that in 2025, it was not Gillis who was &ldquo;stunning and brave,&rdquo; but Disney and ESPN who deserve a modicum of praise for their decision to book him in the first place. The vibe has shifted, and our would-be commissars are finally starting to catch on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Richard Cromwell is a writer and senior contributor at The Federalist. He lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife, three daughters, and two crazy dogs. Co-host of the podcast <a href=\"http:\/\/coffeeandcochon.com\/%E2%80%9C\">Coffee &amp; Cochon<\/a>, you can find him on <a href=\"\/\/www.facebook.com\/jrichardcromwell%E2%80%9C\">Facebook<\/a>  and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/rcromwell4\">Twitter<\/a>, though you should probably avoid using social media.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shane Gillis boldly opened ESPN&#8217;s ESPYs with sharp jokes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":2463567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gillis.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[7958,59423,59339,36971,36456],"class_list":["post-2463566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-comedy","tag-espy-monologue","tag-shane-gillis","tag-social-commentary","tag-woke-culture"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gillis.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2463566"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2463570,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463566\/revisions\/2463570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2463567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2463566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2463566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2463566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}