On last Saturday’s episode of Saturday Night Live, host Shane Gillis delivered a beautifully written monologue full of jokes about fitness, being friends with Joe Rogan, and bombing his set. He is so meta! Here was my favorite joke:
“Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now? I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe— Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. The shorts? You’ve seen the shorts. Those neon— They’re like artificial vape colored. The wrinkles…the wrinkles go, like, around the cheeks and hole…combine at the butthole.” Here, he shrugs. “And don’t look, you’re not allowed to look.”
Forgive me if that was hard to read—it was hard to write. Gillis infamously delivers his sets like it’s his first time doing stand-up: stuttering over words, trying to make sure the audience understands him, awkwardly holding a big mic with both hands (I have no gripes with the microphone as a whole, though I do find it annoying that he is the only host who repeatedly uses them, as if to say “I am a comedian, and comedians hold mics.” Sit on a wooden stool next, why don’t you, Shane?)
Sarcasm aside, I find that “joke” appalling. The punchline is essentially “women wear tight shorts at the gym but don’t want you to look at their a*s.” Did you not learn as a child, Shane, that staring is rude? Did you not learn to mind your own business? This reads as a very dumbed-down comedian way to say “Did you see what she was wearing?”
Maybe, though, that is a reach, and I am too sensitive. After all, many women speaking out online about this joke being offensive, having disgusting undertones, and just overall not being funny, have been met with backlash. They are called too sensitive and told they need to grow up, mostly by men. You know, the ones who feel seen. The ones who want to look.
However, as someone who has been called sensitive my whole life, I have learned to not care about its implications. Sensitive or not, that was not a joke—there was quite literally no punchline—and it was gross. And not to diagnose the bright mind that is Shane Gillis, but “jokes” like these come from a place of insecurity. Hell, the entire set-up was within a bit about him being uncomfortable at the gym. If you are in the mood for self-hatred, go watch this monologue. Fast forward a bit after this joke and hear Gillis talk about looking like a gas station egg. Fast forward a little more to where he talks about looking like Hitler. Now rewind to the part of the monologue that I am focusing on, and ask yourself why a self-described Hitler gas station egg would be upset about not being able to look at a woman’s butt if he wasn’t unhappy with himself.
The thing about Gillis is he knows this joke is going to receive backlash. He is an “edgy” comedian unafraid of the outcries of the “woke left.” When he was fired from SNL (the very SNL that keeps bringing him back, yes I will talk about it) in 2019 after homophobic, racist, and sexist comments were brought to light, he tweeted, “I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries.” Whenever he has a stand-up show before he hosts SNL, audience members have reported him laughing after jokes and saying something along the lines of, “SNL isn’t gonna like that one.” He prepares, writes, and performs his set knowing it will stir up controversy and get people talking. Any press is good press, and any offensive remark is a joke. Isn’t he so brave?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of SNL and have been since I was little. And I’ve been a fan long enough—and just have a general awareness of show business—to know that they are aware of what they’re doing every time they bring on someone like Gillis (they being production, Lorne Michaels, honestly Chloe Fineman if she was still there). They are a show above all else, and though people tend to view them as very left-wing, they are not. Left leaning, maybe, but more of a Tower of Pisa lean: slight but noticeable. They have had hosts like Elon Musk and Donald Trump, musical guests like Morgan Wallen, and they have had politicians from both ends of the spectrum make appearances. Views are views are money. Again, this does not reflect on the cast, and they have spoken out before about their disapproval of certain people appearing on the show. In 2024, republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, most famous for denying the existence of racism in America and not knowing the cause of the American Civil War, appeared in an episode’s cold open. She was given flowers and a note that read, “Haley, welcome to Studio BH! From, Lorne + everyone at SNL.” After the episode aired and the backlash started, Bowen Yang posted a photo of the card on Instagram with the caption, “everyone! :)” and then deleted it not long after.
Now, after Gillis’s kid-at-a-talent-show-esc monologue, the cast and crew are enduring criticism due to a guy that they themselves didn’t ask to be there. This isn’t to say that they didn’t like the “joke,” maybe some did (though, I can say with somewhat confidence that the blank-faced band behind Gillis did not like it). Either way, the talented cast and Mikey Day shouldn’t have to keep suffering through the obvious reasons (controversy and attention) that so many of SNL’s guests are on the show. Objectively speaking, Gillis always bombs when he hosts and walks away with a few laughs and an angry audience. However, the angry audience talks, people watch the show, and NBC is given exactly what they wanted.
Maybe I’m parasocial, maybe I’m sensitive, maybe I just hate Shane Gillis (I do). One thing I do know is that I am so sick of disgusting, misogynistic “jokes” disguised as boundary pushing, edgy humor. Especially in today’s world and in the midst of the crimes of the Cornell 7, joking about women being whores and not being allowed to sexualize them is not funny. It never has been, but especially not now. And of course, I am a hypocrite only feeding into the reactionary response that they want, and of course, Shane Gillis is not going to stop with his middle school boy edgy comedy. But maybe, just maybe, if he’s going to do a horrible job at reading his jokes, maybe he can at least learn to read a room?
P.S. super bold of the guy with a stain on his shirt on national television to talk about the way women dress at the gym.