Adam Sandler’s teenage daughters grilled him on the acceptance speech they wrote for his Gotham award

Adam Sandler shares daughters Sunny, 14, and Sadie, 16, with wife Jackie Sandler

Angela Andaloro is a Parents News Writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, and LittleThings.

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Adam Sandler bravely let his daughters guide his speech as he received the Film Tribute Award at the 2022 Gotham Awards.

The Hustle actor explained to the crowd that he allowed his two teen daughters — Sunny Madeline, 14, and Sadie Madison, 16 — to write his speech accepting the honor.

“I told my daughters Sadie and Sunny, who are 16 and 14, that I didn’t write a speech, and they said phrases like, ‘Rude’ and ‘You’re mean,’ ” Sandler joked to the audience in New York City Monday night.

“They were like, ‘Can we write your speech so you’ve got something to say?’ I said, ‘Absolutely! It would be nice to see you doing something other than watching YouTube or going to f–king Lululemon every f—ing weekend,’ ” the father of two teased.

Obliging their request to accept the award “in that goofy Southern accent that you do all your dumb speeches in,” Sandler’s daughters launched into what the award meant.

“It means a lot to him seeing how most of the awards on his trophy shelf are shaped like popcorn buckets, blimps or fake mini Oscars that say ‘Father of the Year,’ which he sadly purchased himself while wandering in a self-pitying fog through the headshops of Times Square,” he read, laughing at the teens’ jabs.

The girls also lamented not being able to join their parents at the event, writing, “We also wish we could be at tonight’s award show with all of you sophisticated people, but Daddy said, and we quote, ‘I don’t want to spend a whole night that’s supposed to be about me and my greatness listening to you two newly pubetized buffoons screaming, ‘Where is Timothée Chalamet and how can we legally squeeze that fine little Jewish ass of his?'”

Though they were disappointed not to be at the event, they did joke about doing everything they’re “not allowed to do when Daddy is home,” in his absence.

“Like eat his Yodels, try on his Spanx, or – dare we say – laugh out loud at Ben Stiller movies,” he read, with Stiller in attendance. “The last time Daddy caught us chuckling away at the Meet the Parents trilogy, he immediately stormed into the room he calls ‘The Screaming Room,’ which we just call the shower, and bellowed out the phrase, ‘Only the Sandman makes people laugh!'”

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The pair also joked that Sandler’s film Big Daddy featuring “the little cutie who grows up to be Dylan and Cole Sprouse,” could also be described as the movie “that paid for this f–king house and your grandma’s house and your other f–king grandma’s house, Rob Schneider’s f–king house, and your braces and Rob Schneider’s f–king braces!”

At the end of the speech, Sandler broke from the accent and the speech and thanked his daughters and his wife for being part of his journey.

In May, the Uncut Gems actor and his wife celebrated Sunny’s bat mitzvah along with some high-profile guests. The event was attended by the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Taylor Lautner, Sandler’s costars in Murder Mystery and Just Go with It and Grown Ups 2 and The Ridiculous 6.

In a TikTok video shared by user @lilah.newkirk, various guests (including Sandler, Aniston and Lautner) were seen posing with a giant Smarties candy package.

Other shots showed performances from special musical guests Charlie Puth and Halsey, while a photo from the bash posted to Instagram by Victor Boyce — the father of the late Cameron Boyce — showed himself, wife Libby Boyce, Peyton List and more seated at a table together.