Pop music star Justin Timberlake hosted ESPN's 16th Annual ESPY Awards last Wednesday in Los Angeles, and the show aired on Sunday. The broadcast's 4-day tape delay was, apparently, for good reason.

The show's editors got to exact their cutting-room tactics early on in the show, when Timberlake's monologue took an uncomfortably racial turn.

Watch the Edited Version Below


The gaffe occured as the host was teasing Paul Pierce about his "injured" knee in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, sports blog FanNation.com reports. In describing how Pierce quickly came back after being taken off on a wheelchair, Timberlake joked that Pierce was back on the court, "shucking and jiving." According to reports, the comment was met with silence from the audience.

The phrase has it's origins in slavery and is, to some, an offensive reference to the black person's historical subordinance to whites. Other's in the media have caught heat for using the phrase - which is widely misunderstood.