Shane Gillis' 'SNL' Monologue Was Wrong Place, Wrong Time (Again)

And probably on purpose

Maybe it's a good thing that Shane Gillis was fired by Saturday Night Live before he even started.

On Saturday, Gillis (Netflix Tires) rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with several jokes in his SNL monologue — just like he did the first two times he hosted. (And also like when she hosted the ESPYs.) Last weekend's main culprit was a quip about an observation Gillis made about how women dress at the gym.

"I haven't been to the gym in a long time and I don't know that women dress like whores now," Gillis said. "I'm sorry, there's no other way to describe it—have you seen it? I've seen it. The shorts? Have you seen the shorts? That neon—they're like artificial bait colors. The wrinkles go around the cheeks and they all blend in at the edges. And don't look, you're not allowed to look—it doesn't actually look right in the background. Now."

Dan Levy (Schitt's Creek) was among those not amused.

"Women wearing short shorts to the gym doesn't make them whores. It makes men call them misogynistic 'whores.' Here's the difference. By the way, I've seen more men's nipples in the gym than women showing off their bodies," Levy wrote on Instagram. And to be perfectly honest, more men need to stand up to it, because it's this complacency that has created the environment where women are being sexually assaulted and it's a 'conversation' not a 'crime'.

I'll leave that up to individual opinion as to whether Gillis' joke is offensive or not, and to what extent, but one thing's for sure — this joke wasn't made for the SNL audience of 2026.

SNL attracts liberal talent and audiences alike. The film is being shot in New York City and its main target is Donald Trump. The show's writers and actors are generally a diverse group of Gen Zs who have appeared in improv, sketch, and stand-up comedy. They don't listen to Joe Rogan — Gillis' friend who yelled on the set with Theo Vaughn (and Dan Soder, sort of) — and they don't drink that Gillis Bud Light. Studio 8H is no place for homophobic jokes and jokes against women – at least, if you're going to try them, they better be really strong. They were not Gilis.

Comedy is about breaking down boundaries and Gillis is really good at that. His sizable audience is about as anti-woke as the Guinness Book of World Records, which is actually a very reasonable (albeit rare) position for comedians to be in. The same material would probably kill with the Gillis crowd, though they probably wouldn't have much crossover with your average SNL viewer.

It wasn't just the wrong place for a prank—it was definitely the wrong time. Wearing clothes that some people wear, especially to the gym, is by no means a new observation in or out of the comedy community. The "fake bait" line is nice, but not really enough to justify this bit. Gillis's "filming" tag makes the concept a little more timely—self-recording in public gyms is really pervasive and invasive—and Gillis ends up turning himself into a joke, but the content still felt out of place.

Gillis, of course, knows all this - he just doesn't care. That's Mark. He dropped an FF bomb (since edited) later in the episode and laughed it off. Two of the three times Gillis has hosted Saturday Night Live, he's worn just a black t-shirt for a monologue (and the middle of a black jacket over a black t-shirt). Gillis is an ordinary person (emphasis on the "person") who doesn't conform to your social norms and wants everyone to know it. He's a blue-collar guy who would let you assume he'd vote red — that is, until Gillis finally cleared it up (a little) on Rogan's podcast. Gillis has more intelligence and self-awareness than him - what you see is what he wants you to see.

SNL knew exactly what it was getting by booking Gillis. For starters, he'd already seen the show twice. In her first stint as host, Gillis joked about her mother's "gay best friend" before she discovered masturbation and how she looked like she had "family members with Down syndrome." (Of course, again, the first joke was about himself, and the second was before he professed his love for a niece with the genetic disease.)

Gillis' second turn compared liberals to the Sith in Star Wars, which didn't work with the audience sitting directly in front of him. (Both sides of the political aisle believe they're a serious cult.) And oh yeah, SNL previously hired and fired Gillis as a cast member (all within six weeks) after old podcast jokes in which he used racial and homophobic language resurfaced.

His third time was definitely not the charm, but keep in mind that Gillis did (basically) the exact same monologue hours earlier in dress rehearsal. The show (and NBC censors) knew what was coming—Gillis has already done the gym, according to THR—and it's already taking advantage of the attention. Gillis' final monologue currently has 1.2 million views on SNL YouTube, and the F-bomb plot has even more.

SNL creator and executive producer Lauren Michaels seems to be courting controversial hosts with a purpose. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump infamously hosted SNL, which did not go down well with many actors and writers. Last season, two years before it was "cancelled" for masturbating in front of female comics without their consent, host Louie CC ended his monologue with a joke about how much child molesters must love their crimes. In 2022, Dave Chappelle poked fun at Kanye West's anti-Semitic remarks at the time while pointing out Jewish power in Hollywood. Chappelle's monologue is no longer on the official SNL YouTube channel, but Lewis and Shane are (in full).