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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I couldn't cope with life as Ronnie Corbett's daughter. I spent 15 months in psychiatric units. But now I'm a therapist myself... and starting a new career as a stand-up comedian!
Perched on his famous armchair at the front of the London Palladium stage, Ronnie Corbett spied movement in the stalls just as he was about to launch into his story. It was his 11-year-old daughter Emma rising from her seat and leading her younger sister Sophie into the aisle and out of the auditorium. This was their father's solo slot in The Two Ronnies' stage show – his inimitable meandering monologue which was, by now, a national institution on TV. And here was his daughter pointedly snubbing it and making her sister an accomplice. What made her do it? 'It was boring,' she says. 'That's just what he did. I didn't know that was hugely talented.' Emma Corbett, 58, is sitting in the magnificent garden of the five-bedroom home next to Muirfield Golf Course in Gullane which her father bought in 1980. She used to come here during school holidays. For the last few years, it has been her home – a seemingly idyllic East Lothian bolthole with gorgeous views across the Firth of Forth. From a distance, Corbett family life surely seemed idyllic too. First class travel; posh hotels; celebrity parties … Up close, it was filled with turmoil for the elder daughter who craved a normality that was wholly incompatible with her father's showbusiness career. She began to loathe the attention he attracted: 'We'd go out to the theatre and the queue for the ice cream would be shorter than the queue for my Dad. 'When my Dad walked down the street it was like Aladdin. It was like he was almost magical – and for me that was just beyond tiresome. 'I had no time, I felt, to be with my Dad. And people [approaching him] would say things like 'I know I shouldn't…' 'Up until about 13, I'd let them do that and then, at 14, I'd go 'So why are you?'. And then I'd get the look. My Dad was never rude to anyone ever.' In her rebellion she became increasingly rude – and unhinged. She was a headstrong teen, careering off the rails, getting thrown out of private school and, as she approached adulthood, showing ominous signs of mental health problems. In her 20s she would be incarcerated in psychiatric units three times. She suffered appalling depression and became a regular no-show at family gatherings. 'I don't think I could cope with life,' she says. 'And I think I learned to go to dark places. And the more I couldn't cope with life the more I went to the dark place – and then I became really good at it. And then I spent more time in the dark place than I did in the light.' A sense of dread, then, attended many of Ronnie Corbett's years in the spotlight. The Edinburgh-born star and his wife Anne – herself a former musical comedy performer – fretted endlessly over what would become of the daughter who seemed to exist under a cloud. Well, her career path is finally set. She has become a stand-up comedian. 'My parents had to be dead for me to start this stuff,' she says. But why? Wouldn't they have been thrilled to see her continuing the family tradition? 'I doubt any of the Beckham children are going to try and play football,' she says in response. 'We are not talking a mediocre comedian here. We are talking, you know, 'icon' was the word used when he died. That is one of the painful things about Dad – he's such a f****** high bar setter, everything about him, and that makes it tricky. So now I'm not letting anyone down.' She may be several inches taller than his 5ft 1in, but there are echoes of his features in hers. There is a familiarity in the timbre of her voice, even if her refined London vowels are distinct from her father's Edinburgh ones. Yet almost no one at the live shows she has done so far has twigged that she is the daughter of comedy royalty. True, her frequent swearing may have thrown people off the scent. She knows well that would have been her father's central criticism of her routines. Her first performances were five-minute affairs at Edinburgh venue Monkey Barrel which, at the time, had a mural featuring her father at the back of the stage. 'So I had to stand with him painted next to me – nobody knowing. It's weird. I think maybe two people have gone 'Interesting surname, you're not by any chance …' I think people think 'There's no way she's related; I won't ask; that will be embarrassing. Of course she's not Ronnie Corbett's daughter.' Emma Corbett was born in April 1967, a year after her brother Andrew, who had a hole in his heart and survived only weeks. 'Mum and Dad weren't married when he was born. They got married in the weeks that Andrew was alive, and they had him baptised, and then they lost him. 'That's a lot for a family. And also, now that I know what I know about mental health and us as humans, I was born to grieving parents. No wonder I was anxious.' 'Is she still alive? Is she still alive?' she repeats frantically, mimicking a pair of panic-stricken parents. A year later, her sister Sophie was born, and while the younger sibling embraced the 'glitter' that went with family life, the older one bitterly resented the disruptions. She remembers the summer seasons in seaside resorts where her father would perform for nine weeks on the trot. 'So we'd all go – guinea pigs, dogs – we'd all go, rent a house, very nice, but we'd finish the summer term at a new school. That's sh*t. How do you integrate? 'My sister learned to be sweet – is sweet – like a butterfly, and I'm ballsy and funny and that's how I got away with it.' Far more disruptive times lay ahead. In 1979, Australia's Channel 9 commissioned its own series of The Two Ronnies and Corbett and Barker moved there, families in tow, for more than a year. It was a remarkable sojourn – a chance for their families to observe at close quarters one of the most fascinating partnerships in showbusiness: warm, even devoted, yet strangely distant. 'When it was work, it was love. And I suppose it was so intense that it was quite nice to get a break from each other to refresh. 'The closest we were is when we all went to Australia. So, enormous warmth, very different characters. 'For example, Dad wouldn't say: 'Oh, it's a beautiful Sunday. Let's get the Barkers over for a barbecue'. It wasn't that sort of relationship. 'My Dad was boundaried and that was 'work' so he would see that as unnecessary.' Arriving back at Old Palace School, in Croydon, young Emma was horrified to find she was being dropped down a year because – thanks to Australia – she was now behind in many subjects. 'That's when I went 'I'm getting off the bus'.' Within months, she was kicked out of school. 'In the nicest way,' she adds. 'Because everything happens nicely when you are Ronnie Corbett's daughter.' She was sent to a tutorial college in South Kensington – with large gaps in the timetable to get up to mischief in the capital. 'Suddenly I was getting a train up to the centre of London and meeting a whole bunch of delinquents. We were all bright kids who had lost our way and our parents had a few quid.' By 21, she was a mother – the relationship with the father didn't last – and, within a few years was so troubled she went into a psychiatric facility while her parents took care of her son, Tom. 'I joke that I've been sectioned – of course, I haven't because I'm posh, but I've had three incarcerations.' Were they against her will? 'The first time, definitely. The next two times I had a better understanding of why it was happening. So, I think, 15-and-a-half months of my life I've spent in a psychiatric unit.' The roots of her recovery lie in a showbiz function where her father was chatting to Monty Python star Michael Palin. Corbett told him just how worried he was about his older daughter and Palin gave him a name – psychiatrist Gerald Libby. 'I saw so many West End Harley Street boys and I would say anything that fell out of my mouth – they didn't get me. 'It felt like they were trying to put right something that couldn't be right – and then I met Gerald Libby who, without a shadow of a doubt, saved my life.' At 30, she gave birth to her second child – daughter Tilly – but remained fragile. A few months of her pregnancy were spent in The Priory. Although she married the father, the union was short-lived. But, in adulthood, she knew that her parents were firmly in her corner. 'They were brilliant,' she says. 'They threw everything at it. 'Dad, who had always been unbelievably busy – very kind, generous, but not ridiculously generous – when I got properly ill, he was amazing.' Now a single mother of two, she took a job as a librarian at Bede's School in Sussex because the post gave her 75 per cent off the fees. She later became a house matron, where her natural empathy with teenagers and their problems soon suggested a way forward. She trained as a therapist, eventually establishing her own private practice. 'My favourites are school refusers – my favourites are me, really. I am not a therapist who will sit in the sh*t with people for very long any more. So I will hear and watch and then I will call them out and challenge it.' By the time her father died, aged 85, in 2016, he knew that his daughter had turned her life around and was now helping to turn others around. In the garden of his former Scottish home, she mentions the gap in the wall which Muirfield Golf Club cut for her father to walk straight on to the course. In his later years, they would leave a golf buggy there for him. Photos of the star in a flat cap still adorn the downstairs toilet. It was here in Gullane that the older Corbett daughter became a carer for her ailing mother during lockdown. Life, it seemed, had come full circle. 'It was slow and difficult at times – it was a miracle I didn't kill her myself,' she says laughing. 'And then suddenly it was over, and I didn't know what to do with myself.' Anne Corbett died aged 90 in 2023 and her daughter stayed on in a house filled with family memories. She discovered that her parents had kept all her cards and letters of apology for her errant behaviour down the years. 'It's quite hysterical – 'there are no words for my behaviour'. I was always very good at apologising.' For now, the house is in a state of disarray. She is moving into a one-bedroom wooden chalet she has had built in the garden and the Corbett home is to become a short-term holiday let. In her live shows, she majors on many of her own misadventures. Her last husband left her for a religious cult, she tells audiences (he really did) – he found God while she found cake. She rails at the fearful, woke tendencies of modern comedy – while admitting she won't go anywhere near gender ID – and, when asked if stand-up has become too Left-wing, answers emphatically: 'Yes! Yes!' So far, her father has been largely absent from her routines, but that is about to change. 'Next year I'm hoping it will be a lot more about the extraordinary story of being brought up famous.' She adds: 'It's a tricky bridge to privilege because my life has been tough but it ain't that tough and I don't want them not to like me, so it's going to have to be crafted very well.' What would her father think of her new direction in life? 'I think he really would have approved of me being brave enough. He always thought I had undersold myself. However, he would not like my language.' After every gig, she comes home and 'unpicks' her show in her head with the comedy master whose own routine she boycotted as a child all those years ago. What does he say to her? 'He says 'Trust your instinct, my dear one. You've waited a long time. Never take it for granted and never stop working hard'.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shane Gillis' ESPYs Monologue Took Aim at Everyone — from President Trump to Shedeur Sanders
Shane Gillis gave zero hecks about making anyone uncomfortable with his monologue. He hit the gas pedal from the start on Wednesday night at the ESPY Awards, and he never let up. The 37-year-old comedian's monologue in front of the world's biggest sports stars took aim seemingly at just about everyone — from WNBA star Caitlin Clark to former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. It seemed as though Gillis was going for the jugular the entire night, and he even zeroed in on a subject that has captivated the entire nation: the Jeffrey Epstein files. Gillis first set up the joke with a jab at President Donald Trump, which drew huge laughter from the crowd at the Dolby Theater in downtown Los Angeles. "Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn. The last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died," he joked. Gillis 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. Let's move on as a country and ignore that." Gillis then went after Deion Sanders' son, who earlier this year shockingly slid in the NFL Draft. The Cleveland Browns finally selected him in the fifth round with the 144th overall pick. "Shedeur Sanders had his jersey retired at Colorado this year. People are saying it's because of nepotism, because of his father," Gillis said. "And it's not. It's because he went 13-12 over his career and he almost won the Alamo Bowl." Gillis also walked down memory lane during his monologue, as he conjured up Norm Maconald's controversial bit for an eerily similar joke about two-way Jacksonville Jaguars star Travis Hunter. "Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy this year. He is the first defensive player since Charles Woodson to win the Heisman," Gillis said. "Congratulations, Travis Hunter, winning the Heisman is something they can never take away from you — unless you kill your wife and a waiter, in which case, they can take it away from you."Macdonald made the same joke about former Michigan two-way star Charles Woodson during the 1998 ESPYs. And both times the joke got mixed reactions. As for Clark, the Indiana Fever star, Gillis' joke about her made people uncomfortable. "It's a big year for the WNBA. I love Caitlin Clark," he said. "Caitlin Clark, she and I have a lot in common. We're both whites from the midwest who have nailed a bunch of threes." He then winced and added, "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." Shane Gillis' ESPYs Monologue Took Aim at Everyone — from President Trump to Shedeur Sanders first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 17, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shane Gillis' ESPYs Monologue Wasn't Great — But Not for the Reasons You Think
The 2025 ESPY Awards will likely be remembered for Shane Gillis' monologue, even if the comedy was largely forgettable. Gillis, a standup comedian and the co-creator and star of Netflix's Tires, is probably best known for lasting like four hours at Saturday Night Live — Lorne Michaels felt compelled to fire Gillis after some non-PC clips of a 2018 episode of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast were resurfaced — though he has gone on to host the show, twice. More from The Hollywood Reporter Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Simone Biles Among Top Winners at 2025 ESPY Awards How to Watch the 2025 ESPY Awards Online First-Time Nominee Cooper Koch Is "Devastated" Over Emmy Snubs for Two of His 'Monsters' Co-Stars By now, you've probably read both praise and criticism on Gillis' monologue — he's that kind of comic. Gillis is wildly popular among his base, and controversial among non-fans. This was always gonna go some sort of way, and ESPN executives knew that when they gave Gillis the gig. Gillis has appeared on the network's College GameDay show, where he (internet-)famously got into it with Nick Saban, an all-time great college football coach and an analyst on the popular ESPN program. There were some positives from Gillis' ESPYs monologue. First of all, he dressed better than I'd expect, so there's that; Gillis' respect for the audience largely stopped there. Though Gillis had some tough (even by modern awards-show standards) punchlines for the guests, he started light. '[Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] is here, give it up for SGA. Hell yeah, bro,' Gillis said. 'And now, everyone sitting around him is in foul trouble.' It's a good opener — a nice B+ joke that eases the audience into things. It says Gillis is here to poke fun, not poke the bear. That was short-lived. 'Megan Rapinoe isn't here,' Gillis said next. 'Nice.' That was the joke. And it was where things started to go sideways. For Gillis fans, a punchline of 'Nice.' and a smirk is kind of a staple of his persona — it's almost a catchphrase. The joke is polarizing, sure, but so is Rapinoe to Gillis' base (and vice-versa). Rapinoe, the U.S. soccer great, in 2016 kneeled during the national anthem in support of Colin Kaepernick. She's ripped the NCAA in front of Congress and has called out U.S. Soccer in a discrimination suit. The joke got some laughs — it was still early on and the benefit-of-the-doubt time. Gillis saved the moment somewhat. 'No? We're gonna pretend she's a good time?' he said. 'Alright.' Being unbothered by the negative reception of a joke or opinion is another Shane Gillis hallmark. He rolls with the punches as well as he throws punches. Gillis is an anomaly. He presents as a right-wing good ol' boy, but he's not ignorant; Gillis does not fit neatly into the box that people project on him, and that can be confusing for crowds and critics. Like, what do you do when Shane Gillis makes Trump jokes? Let's find out. 'Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn,' Gillis said to a crowd that included some UFC greats. 'The last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died.' It took some time, but the joke — a reference to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — worked. It even got an applause break. It was as if the crowd collectively thought, 'Oh, wait — is he on our side (politically)?' It's another regular occurrence at a Shane Gillis show, where preconceived notions (one way or the other) don't work out. 'There was supposed to be an Epstein joke here,' Gillis continued to roll at the ESPYs, gesturing to the teleprompter, 'but I guess it got deleted.' 'It probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually,' he quipped. 'Let's move on as a country and ignore that.' Gillis does not let you pin him down. It's the political comedy you didn't expect to get out of a big guy who looks like that and pals around with Joe Rogan. But just as quickly as Gillis got his good-guy status back among the Dolby Theatre audience, he called out Karl-Anthony Towns in a reference to viral memes that depict the New York Knicks star as an effeminate defender of the basketball. 'The New York Knicks had a great season.' Applause. 'Karl-Anthony Towns is here. Hey guuurl!' Perhaps surprisingly, that one actually went over alright, which is really unfortunate for K.A.T. The (mostly) positive reaction to what was effectively a gay joke seems to indicate that a crowd full of Towns' fellow professional athletes lost the 'proper' public response to such material to a subconscious sense of agreement with its concept. That cannot feel good, regardless of whether you think the joke sucks or not. The next joke was a Juneteenth joke, so you can probably guess how that went over. 'Maxx Crosby is here. I hope you had a good Juneteenth, brother.' Crosby is not Black, but there is a narrative out there about him having a 'pass' to use the N-word (with an 'a' at the end, not 'er') in social settings. There is also a common assumption that Crosby caught himself in mid-use of the word in a 2023 call to action for Las Vegas Raiders fans. So that's the joke, more so than a mockery of the holiday itself — but it also does (at least) kind of belittle the relatively new national holiday, which celebrates the ending of slavery. Next, Gillis straight-up got booed — not by everyone, though enough to hear on TV — but the hyper-negative response wasn't really fair to the point of the joke. 'Joe Rogan actually wanted me to be here to host this awards show so that I could capture (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver, because Joe thinks he's an alien,' Gillis said. 'And Donald Trump wanted me to be here to capture Juan Soto, for the same reason.' Saying Silver looks like an alien would be a cheap joke, but it's not the joke here — it's the setup. The joke is on President Trump and ICE — it is identifying the ridiculousness of the mass-deportation witch hunt. The groans and boos were a misunderstanding of the intention; they came from people who (likely) heard 'alien' in the same sentence as the name of a popular baseball player from the Dominican Republic and instinctually found it to be an off-color joke told by a racist. But that's not the point. Gillis is calling out what he (and 80 percent of the crowd, probably) sees to be a racist initiative by the federal government. Soto is an alien; he came to the U.S. in July 2015 when he was 16 years old, and only because he was drafted by the Washington Nationals, ironically. And also, the NBA commissioner, Silver, does look like an alien. The general reception to the monologue as a whole was mixed in the room, multiple ESPYs attendees told The Hollywood Reporter; some jokes were called 'hilarious,' while others 'missed the mark.' One production source told THR that the monologue played better in the room than on the screen. Here, I should point out how difficult it is to have a strong ESPYs monologue. You can pretty much only make jokes about sports, and you're telling them to some of the worst sports on the planet. These aren't trained actors in the audience — it is a ballroom full of some of the most disciplined, God-gifted, physical specimens on the planet — in other words, the people that bullied the rest of us into developing a sense of humor. When you look like DK Metcalf, no one makes fun of you. Gillis bailed himself out with his next joke. He picked the perfect target for the perfect spot in his set. 'Aaron Rodgers did not take the (COVID-19) vaccine because he thought it would be bad for him,' Gillis said. 'And then he joined the New York Jets.' There are very few things worse for you than playing for that organization. The joke has the same political slant as the Soto joke — it was just easier for the audience to digest. And it got Gillis on a roll. 'It's a big year for the WNBA. I love Caitlin Clark,' Gillis said. 'Caitlin Clark and I have a lot in common: we're both whites from the Midwest who have nailed a bunch of threes.' To borrow a phrase from Gillis here: Hell, yeah. The joke works because 1) it's clever and 2) Gillis made himself the butt of the joke. It gifted Gillis enough grace for the next one. 'When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she's going to work at a Waffle House,' Gillis said, 'so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist-fighting Black women.' That one generally landed as well, but it tightened up some of the audience again. The joke here is about how many physical altercations Clark — a white woman — has gotten into in the WNBA, a predominantly Black league. Clark is the league's biggest star and appears to be the target of regular physical antagonization on the court. The Waffle House clientele and behavior piece is, of course, a stereotype. But together, it's funny. We can laugh about these things together. Well, maybe not the executives backstage: ESPN has been a staunch supporter of the WNBA (and the NBA), and recently signed another long-term TV deal. Unfortunately, after that, Gillis definitely did not land the plane. He went on a run about legendary New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his much younger girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. One joke was a particularly ill-advised shot about the WAGS (wives and girlfriends of sportsmen) in the crowd. '[Bill Belichick] has won six Super Bowls. He's dating a hot 24-year-old. Maybe if you guys won six Super Bowls, you wouldn't be sitting next to a fat, ugly dog-wife.' Woof. Why? Well, the idea is that Belichick is a hell of a winner, and maybe the rest of the room should back off a bit on his personal life. OK sure, but mean-spirited comedy doesn't work when it's not funny. Gillis knows that, but he's an envelope pusher as much as he is a button pusher. 'They let me do it. This is Disney. They allowed that,' Gillis said. 'We should have taken that out. I had doubts going into that — that didn't work all week.' When in doubt, go back to Trump. But not like this. Gillis then spent more than two minutes of a 10-minute monologue telling an aimless Trump story that seemed to only exist as a platform for his (quite good) impression of the POTUS — and probably as a cheap way to get the audience back on his side. In classic Gillis fashion, however, he offset the jokes for those on the left with a joke for those on the right. Another WNBA joke — a cheap one about WNBA players looking like men — didn't work. It also just made things officially weird when you add up the number of jokes about one league. It's a bit of tipping your hand, and it's a bad look. Gillis had one last chance to win the day. And to some degree, he did by endearing himself to the audience with a sweet, thoughtful, meta tribute. 'There's one thing I wanna say before I get out of here,' Gillis wound down. 'You guys aren't gonna like it.' Oh, OK then. Please go on? 'But it was a Norm Macdonald joke that I loved when he hosted the ESPYs and I'm gonna do it now,' Gillis continued. 'Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy this year. He's the first defensive player since Charles Woodson to win the Heisman. Congratulations, Travis Hunter. Winning the Heisman — that's something they can never take away from you. Unless you kill your wife and a waiter.' Macdonald's original telling of the joke is my favorite joke of all time — proof here — so I saw it coming with Shane's setup. It was a cool and touching idea for very few of us. For Gillis, it was personal. (Macdonald died in 2021.) Norm, the ultimate comics' comic, was fired from SNL: Weekend Update in January 1998 after repeatedly making jokes about O.J. Simpson, a close friend of NBC's west coast president Don Ohlmeyer. Jim Downey, who wrote the jokes with Norm, was also let go (though he would return). Their SNL tenures were far, far longer than Gillis'. Mere months after Macdonald's SNL demotion (he stayed as a cast member for a very short bit after), the Dirty Work star hosted the ESPY Awards. That year's Heisman winner was Woodson, the first-ever defensive player to win the coveted best-college-football-player trophy. Less than three years prior, Simpson, the 1968 Heisman winner, was acquitted of murder in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman, a server at Mezzaluna Trattoria. Though the Heisman Trust never actually revoked Simpson's trophy — a common misconception that almost happened — it had been removed from USC's Heritage Hall lobby after Simpson's arrest (and then later put back on display, and then stolen.) That is the environment in which the joke happened. It was perfect, it was vengeful and it was hilarious. It was almost 30 years ago, before most of the athletes in the crowd were even born. Gillis' retelling of the joke lacked the context and understanding of his audience. And that pretty much sums up Gillis' ESPYs monologue. 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The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Gillis draws boos and laughs amid jabs at Caitlin Clark and Donald Trump at Espys ceremony
Comedian Shane Gillis's opening monologue as host at the Espys awards ceremony went over awkwardly in front of some of the biggest names in sports on Wednesday night. Early on, he called out various famous faces in the Dolby Theatre crowd in Los Angeles, including retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi, who received the Icon Award later in the evening. Gillis asked the crowd to 'give it up Taurasi', but only after he had called the six-time Olympic champion 'Deanna.' The camera showed an unsmiling Taurasi shaking her head. Gillis quickly caught his mistake, saying, 'My bad on that.' Gillis then moved on to another basketball star, Caitlin Clark, who wasn't at the ceremony as she deals with an injury ahead of this weekend's WNBA All-Star game. '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 joked. While some in the audience laughed, others appeared uncomfortable. Gillis continued on for 10 minutes, drawing a scattering of boos at one point, with jokes about Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. 'Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn. The last time he staged a fight in DC, Mike Pence almost died,' Gillis said. He then turned to Epstein, saying: 'There was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted.' Last week, the justice department and the FBI announced that a review of the case files had confirmed that Epstein had killed himself, and there was no list of his clients to be made public. Gillis' performance drew mixed reviews on social media, with some praising his criticism of Trump, while others criticized the racially charged reference to Clark at a time when WNBA players have been the subject of online bigotry. Gillis was dropped from the Saturday Night Live cast in 2019 after podcast footage surfaced of him making racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments. Gillis apologized at the time, saying in a statement he was 'a comedian who pushes boundaries' but who 'sometimes missed'. He returned to guest host the show in 2024. Gillis was on safer ground when he took a light jab at reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Canadian star, who won the NBA title with the Oklahoma City Thunder in June, has attracted criticism for drawing fouls during games. He smiled when Gillis said: 'SGA is here. Everybody sitting around him is in foul trouble.' Gillis also got a good reception for a joke about former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. 'A bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bedtime,' said Gillis of the 73-year-old. Before he ended his monologue, a smiling Gillis said, 'I see a lot of you don't like me and that's OK. That's it for me. That went about exactly how we all thought it was going to go. I don't know why this happened.' Gilgeous-Alexander and Simone Biles were named as best male and female athletes once the ceremony got underway. Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder to the franchise's first title in Oklahoma City while also leading the NBA in scoring. 'It's a dream come true and for dreams to come true it takes a village,' he said, thanking his wife, parents, brother and others. 'Those names probably don't mean much but to me they mean everything.' Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, also claimed the night's first award, best championship performance for her efforts at the Paris Games. She won three golds and a silver at last summer's Olympics. 'That was very unexpected, especially in a category of all men,' Biles said after beating Stephen Curry, Freddie Freeman and Rory McIlroy to the championship performance award. Biles' Olympic teammate, Suni Lee, won the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases to help the US win team gold in Paris. She brought one of her doctors to the show.
CBS News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Comedian Shane Gillis' awkward ESPYS monologue draws mixed reactions
Comedian Shane Gillis' opening monologue as host of the ESPYS went over awkwardly in front of some of the biggest names in sports on Wednesday night. Early on, he called out various famous faces in the Dolby Theatre crowd, including retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi, who was to receive the Icon Award later in the evening. Gillis said, "Give it up for her" after calling her "Deanna." The camera showed an unsmiling Taurasi shaking her head. Gillis quickly caught his mistake, saying, "My bad on that." Gillis moved on to WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, who wasn't on hand. "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 joked. While some in the audience laughed, others appeared uncomfortable. Gillis plowed on for 10 minutes, with jokes about President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, whose sex trafficking investigation has roiled the Justice Department and FBI. Gillis' performance drew mixed reviews on social media, with some calling him "hilarious" and others "cringey." Gillis' initial joke about North Carolina coach Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson drew a lot of laughs. "A bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bed time," he said. "They read 'The Very Horny Caterpillar,' 'The Little Engine That Could But Needed a Pill Firs't' and of course the classic 'Goodnight Boobs.'" But the reaction was mixed as Gillis continued. "He won six Super Bowls. He's dating a hot 24 year old. Maybe if you guys won six Super Bowls you wouldn't be sitting next to a fat ugly dog wife." Gillis admitted he should have cut that part of the joke. NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander smiled when Gillis said, "SGA is here. Everybody sitting around him is in foul trouble." Gillis retold what he called "a dumb joke" that he said he loved from former "Saturday Night Live" comic Norm MacDonald's stint as ESPYs host in 1998. Gillis congratulated Colorado two-way player Travis Hunter for winning the Heisman Trophy. "That's something they can never take away from you unless you kill your wife and a waiter," he said, referring to the late O.J. Simpson. Before closing it out, a smiling Gillis said, "I see a lot of you don't like me and that's OK. That's it for me. That went about exactly how we all thought it was going to go. I don't know why this happened." Gillis, a known Eagles fan, also did a skit on the "tush push," the play made famous by the Philadelphia Eagles that the NFL tried to ban earlier this year. The skit featured Gillis and comedian Druski and others discussing the origins of the "tush push." Gillis, a Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, native, even ripped the other teams in the NFL that voted to ban the "tush push" and called them "cowards." Gillis joked with Birds head coach Nick Sirianni in the crowd after the skit aired. "It was kinda exactly how you just showed it right there," Sirianni joked. An emotional Katie Schumacher-Cawley accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance with her husband and children looking on. The Penn State women's volleyball coach was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in September. She continued coaching without missing a practice and became the first woman to guide a team to the NCAA national championship. "Cancer changed my life but it didn't take it. It didn't take my belief, it didn't take my spirit and it didn't take my team," she said. The Indianapolis Colts and former U.S. Open tennis champion Sloane Stephens were among the winners at the 11th annual Sports Humanitarian Awards. The Colts were honored as the team of the year for their Kicking the Stigma campaign to raise mental health awareness and expand access to treatment. Stephens received the Muhammad Ali award for her namesake foundation that works to make tennis more inclusive through access, representation and support for kids on and off the court. She beat out Washington Wizards guard CJ McCollum and Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin. Michele Kang, the billionaire owner of the NWSL's Washington Spirit, was chosen as the Sports Philanthropist of the Year. Billy Bean, former MLB player and executive, was posthumously honored with the Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award.
