A controversial joke about Catholics made Friday on a live edition of The Pat McAfee Show could land McAfee and company in some hot water.
ESPN College GameDay is taking to South Bend, Indiana for Week 4 of the college football season for Saturday’s primetime matchup between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes. McAfee is a part of the College GameDay cast, so The Pat McAfee Show took to Notre Dame’s campus for a live broadcast of their show.
A number of Notre Dame personalities were featured on the show Friday, including former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, current Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, and running back Audric Estime.
The broadcast had its fair share of controversial moments but things took a turn when a joke was made about the Catholic faith while McAfee was greeting some of the Notre Dame fans in attendance for the show.
“Be careful. You never know where Catholic hands go,” Pat McAfee Show regular “Boston Connor” presumably said.
"Be careful. You never know where Catholic hands go."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa… You can't say that here."
As heard on 'The Pat McAfee Show' on ESPN from Notre Dame. pic.twitter.com/2WnBZirSXJ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 22, 2023
The camera was focused on McAfee in the stands, so it isn’t exactly clear who said this disparaging comment about Catholics. But by the sounds of the voice alone, most fans tuning into the show determined that it sounded like Boston Connor.
https://twitter.com/_MLFootball/status/1705268613954011351
@BostonConnr from the top rope! And that’s from a catholic 😂 https://t.co/SqbTr1ZrjY
— Adam (@ajlaubenthal) September 22, 2023
Making any kind of joke about a religion is a very touchy subject and plenty of people were offended by the live comment.
That’s how you quickly get never invited back to ND again
— Halo Diehards burner/ chargers fan (@winagameszn) September 22, 2023
Another example of the War on Catholicism:
"Be careful. You never know where Catholic hands go." – As heard on 'The Pat McAfee Show' on ESPN from Notre Dame
Absolutely disgusting. Pat McAfee should be fired immediately.
My religion is not comedy
— Steve Franklin (@MyGuySteve) September 22, 2023
I’m Catholic and found this funny
What I don’t like is the same rules don’t apply to making jokes about literally any other religion so as usual this will likely go unnoticed
— Gannon Breslin (@gannonbreslin) September 22, 2023
The Pat McAfee Show just arrived on ESPN programming at the beginning of September. The appeal of the show is that it’s extremely unfiltered, which is exactly why they share disclaimers beforehand and have a censor dump when airing on ESPN.
Hello beautiful people..
IT IS NFL KICKOFF THURSDAY #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/aPIedl1XoW
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 7, 2023
McAfee wasn’t the one who made this joke, but the show as a whole could certainly be reprimanded by ESPN, or at the very least be asked to apologize, as it’s hard to imagine many other ESPN personalities being allowed to say something similar on the air.
