Stephen A. Smith’s awkward vibrator rant had Molly Qerim and Dan Orlovsky cringing

Stephen A. Smith will talk about anything, but usually he saves the explicit content for his podcast. Not this week.

Thursday morning on First Take, Molly Qerim’s phone started vibrating. It was seemingly no big deal, the audience never would have even known her phone was going off until Smith decided to bring attention to it. But Smith didn’t just mention Qerim’s phone going off, he took something innocuous and turned it into a joke that had everyone cringing.

“That’s Molly’s cell phone ringing, by the way,” Smith said, to which Qerim quickly pointed out it wasn’t ringing. Like most people at work, Qerim keeps her phone on vibrate not to disturb others.

“VIBRATING,” Smith corrected himself. “I try to say ring. Do you want me to say vibrating on the air? You always like me mentioning vibrating on air with you with your phone. You really want me to do that? You really want me to keep saying vibrating with your phone?”

No, no one wanted Stephen A. Smith to repeatedly use the term vibrating in a salacious way that was obviously making reference to adult toys. And no one wanted Stephen A. Smith to imply Molly Qerim likes to hear him talk about vibrating on live television either. It almost seemed like Smith realized he may have crossed a line with the joke, but decided to push it even further rather than accept the loss and retreat.

Remember when everyone feared Pat McAfee was going to be too scandalous for ESPN? A few curse words are nothing compared to this vibrator exchange.

“I said ringing,” Smith continued in a sort of ‘told you so’ tone. “Just go with the ring, go with the ring, Molly! Go with the ring! I’m trying to avoid the vibrating.”

Alright, cut him off. Smith was trying to do something with this bit, but he definitely wasn’t trying to avoid the word vibrating. Qerim, Orlovsky, and everyone watching, however, were trying to avoid hearing Smith continue the joke that had already gone too far.

“I’m trying to avoid getting fired,” Orlovsky said while pulling a towel over his head in embarrassment.

Smith and Qerim regularly make fun of each other on First Take, the ribbing is nothing new, but the nature of this joke had everyone looking a little uncomfortable. The bit probably should have stopped after Smith playfully attempted to embarrass Qerim for her phone going off. But perhaps his tendency to go off the rails on his podcast has Smith trying to bring some more provocative commentary to ESPN.

“This isn’t the Stephen A. Smith Show on YouTube,” Qerim reminded the First Take host. “It’s Disney.”

[First Take]