Movies

Adam Sandler Let His Daughters Write His Wild Gotham Awards Speech – Rolling Stone

November 30, 2022

Adam Sandler left his two daughters pen his hilarious, self-deprecating speech as he accepted a Career Tribute award at the 2022 Gotham Awards on Monday, Nov. 28.

Sandler started the speech by joking that his two children called him for not having the energy to write his own speech before offering to do it for him. Sandler agreed and noted that his children had only one other condition: “Do you want to do the speech in that goofy Southern accent that you do all your stupid speeches in?” Of course, he accepted.

The speech got off to a fantastic start, with Sandler reading, “Dear well-dressed dignitaries, highly educated hipsters and various other plus-ones from the Gotham Awards: Thank you for giving our dad, Mr. Adam Sandler, this prestigious to life, all time, prime time, GOAT Achievement Tribute Award… It means a lot to him, because most of the awards on his trophy shelf are in the form of buckets of popcorn, of airships or fake mini-Oscars that say ‘Father of the Year’, which he unfortunately bought himself while wandering in a fog of self-pity through the headshops of Times Square.

Sandler’s speech was peppered with a series of self-deprecating jokes about his career. When he embarked on his movie career in the late ’80s, he said one of his guiding principles was that “TBS needs content to show in between all those fucking basketball games.” Of Grandpahe cracked up that his kids could remember the hit comedy as the movie that launched Cole and Dylan Sprouse’s careers or the movie that paid for their house, their grandmothers’ houses, Rob Schneider’s house, their accolades and the accolades of Rob Schneider.

When discussing some of his “more serious” endeavors, such as Love Drunk Punch and Uncut GemsSandler joked that these films “left audiences baffled as they pondered the mystery: how Bobby Boucher got into my feelings and made me laugh, cry, and sprint straight to the church to ask to God why he had blessed a man with more talent than the entire cast of The Poseidon Adventure and Mama Mia combined?”

Editor’s Choice

Sandler and his daughters saved the all-important “thank you” for last, with the comedian joking, “Thank you, Mom, for putting up with Dad and his crazy fucking mood swings all these years. Now it’s is truly a feat that deserves a lifetime achievement award.

Sandler then dropped the vocal and added, “I appreciate everything…It means a lot. I had a great career, I had a great time making all these films and I thank everyone who worked hard on them.

Sandler received a warm introduction from Josh and Benny Safdie, the brothers who managed him in 2019 Uncut Gems (and who would work with Sandler on a new project). The pair recalled watching Sandler on Saturday Night Live and listening to his 1993 comedy album, They will all laugh at you! with the volume turned down so their father wouldn’t hear.

Benny Safdie then went through Sandler’s remarkable series of films from Billy Madison at Love Drunk Punch and called Sandler the “industrial revolution of actors.” This prompted Benny to repeat, verbatim, the classic “everyone in this room is now dumber” speech from the big college decathlon scene to Billy Madison.