Did Shane Gillis make an Epstein joke at the ESPYs? Michael Knowles calls comedian a “fence sitter politically” after his hosting gig

Michael Knowles recently shared his response to Shane Gillis making an Epstein joke by referring to Donald Trump at the ESPY Awards on July 16, 2025. According to The Independent, the joke was a part of Shane’s opening monologue during the event, which was hosted by him.

In a video posted through his official YouTube channel on July 18, 2025, Michael displayed the entire moment where Shane made the joke. Knowles stated that he likes Shane Gillis and added:

“I think he’s very funny. But Shane Gillis is a fence sitter politically. He is not, he’s not on the right, he’s not on the left. He is a fence sitter and he is a weather vein. He’s, he’s a very funny guy too. But he doesn’t want to upset the left and he doesn’t want to upset the right. And he’s going to go basically where the median voter is.”

The political commentator compared Shane with Joe Rogan, saying that the latter is the “greatest podcaster ever”, due to which he can easily leave an impact. Knowles claimed that Gillis is trying to do the same as a comedian and added:

“Right now, the administration needs to do everything it can, not to lose the median voter. This is political advice going all the way back to Antonio Gramsci, going and further back than that. You want, you gotta, you got to have the common sense. And Trump won with the popular vote, with huge swaths of every demographic because he had the common sense and the libs lost the common sense.”

The media host’s video has received almost 19,000 views, as of this writing. However, Shane Gillis has not responded to the video until now.

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Shane Gillis referred to the US President while joking about Epstein

As mentioned, the Saturday Night Live star made a joke about Jeffrey Epstein on his monologue at the ESPY Awards. Notably, a video of the monologue is already trending on different platforms.

According to NBC Montana, the joke seemingly addressed how Jeffrey Epstein’s case was handled by Donald Trump’s administration. Shane Gillis’ joke has also been receiving different kinds of responses from netizens on social media. As per the viral video of the joke, Gillis started by referring to the President of the United States and said:

“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.”

The audience present at the event started clapping immediately, and the Delco Proper star said that they didn’t need to do that, adding that he did not write the joke. Shane Gillis then referred to Jeffrey Epstein, as he stated:

“Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted. Must have uh probably deleted itself right? Probably never existed, actually. Let’s move on as a country and ignore that.”

Trump has been in the headlines after he defended the review of the Epstein files, conducted by the Department of Justice and the FBI, as reported by NPR on July 15, 2025. The criticism emerged after Trump shared a post on Truth Social last week, telling people to stop focusing on the Epstein Files. He also supported his administration by writing:

“We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”

CNBC reported on July 17, 2025, that, as per the White House, Trump is not going to recommend a special prosecutor to review the documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s legal issues. While speaking to the reporters, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that any form of “credible evidence” found by Attorney General Pam Bondi or the Justice Department would be provided to the Americans.

Edited by Bharath S