When the ESPY's were started 17 years ago, I remember being excited and then after the first couple I looked forward to seeing them every year. However, over the last 5 years or so they really are pretty dull aside from a montage here and there. The lifetime achievement awards are nice, and normally it causes most of the audience to start crying including myself, but other than a few moments I really have no reason to watch them. The awards are just made up, and based on the most popular athlete, as they are voted on by the fans. The comedy is usually what I'd look forward to, but after a couple hosts pushed the limit, they have made the sketches and jokes very vanilla. Samuel Jackson made a funny comment about Michael "Bong Hit" Phelps, but other than that it was boring. How many twitter jokes can do about TO, The Williams Sisters, and Ocho Cinco?
The ESPYs now is more about ESPN promoting its brand and really nothing else. I guess when you pretty much have a monopoly on the sports coverage you really don't need to do stuff outside the box any longer, and now we are stuck with a stale show, pretty weak.
-SF 58
Sunday, July 19, 2009
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I didn't have the pleasure of viewing tonights ESPY "awards" but like you Sportsfreak, when they first started I was optimistic. You're totally right about the humor aspect. One of the funniest ESPY moments I can recall took place during the 1998 ESPY's when Norm MacDonald was hosting. He looked at then Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson and said words to the effect of "Hey Charles Woodson you won the Heisman Trophy!! Good for you my friend. That's a monumental achievement that nobody will ever take away from you...Even if you murder you're ex-wife and her boyfriend." Now that's good, edgy topical humor that I'm pretty positive is no longer featured.
ReplyDeleteWell Said Angelo, well said. I forgot about that line to Woodson, that year definitely started them pulling back a bit. That line from Norm MacDonald is classic, those days are long gone.
ReplyDeleteHosting that thing is really all that's left of Samuel L. Jackson's career.
ReplyDelete