Saturday Night Live (SNL) has made somewhat of a resurgence in recent years, with Season 51 ranking No. 1 in comedy. SNL’s shift into more Gen-Z humor, internet references, and celebrities has boosted the comedy show back into the mainstream. Part of its appeal is that celebrity guests and comedians rotate as cast members and hosts throughout the seasons, coming and going, giving a diverse pool of different comedy genres to pull from.
On Oct. 10, 2026, Shane Gillis made a return to the SNL stage as the guest host, marking his second time being on the series. However, his opening monologue, more or less, fell flat as his jokes caused a stir across the internet for being misogynistic.
THE Shane Gillis Monologue
Gillis has been a comedian for over 14 years, focusing his jokes mostly on cruder humor and self-deprecating jokes. Now, this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if done right, it can make many people laugh. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the response he got from viewers after his opening monologue, where he cracked a joke about women dressing up as “wh*res” in the gym.
The overall joke was meant to be a dig at Gillis himself being unattractive at the gym and feeling self-conscious being surrounded by good-looking people. However, he used this opportunity to poke fun at women who wear short shorts and described, very uncomfortably to the audience, how their bottoms look in said shorts.
This brings up the conversation about how male comedians use women as their crude punching bag in many of their shows. Although Gillis may not have intended for the joke to be taken so strongly, it still highlights how jokes that are just an excuse to call a group of people a derogatory name for the sake of a few pity laughs have a negative effect on viewers.
Male Comedians
The entire internet has been torn on whether the joke itself is offensive, or if people online have become too “sensitive.” What SNL viewers defending Gillis don’t understand is that comedians can make tasteful, respectful, and funny jokes about groups of people they’re not a part of without having to make them feel less than or not worthy of decency.
A prime example of a male comedian who makes jokes about women while still being respectful is Marcello Hernández, another comedian and cast member of SNL Season 52. Hernández can bend the line of comedy that pokes fun at others without coming off as distasteful, especially when making jokes about women. He uses his mother and sister as prime examples in his life and uses their experiences to make funny moments about their love, intensity, and how they shaped him, rather than making them the punchline of his jokes.
Gillis also makes a reference to his two older sisters, but again, he fails to make them seem like anything other than the punchline, using mostly hateful words to describe them. Most women don’t mind being mentioned in comedy, but we want to be able to laugh with the joke rather than cringe at whatever humorless dig the comedian is trying to make at our expense.
Whether you found the joke funny or not, it’s important to remember that jokes don’t have to belittle anyone to be funny. Especially during recent news events, such as the Cornell 7 Case, this monologue routine just felt kind of insensitive and out of touch with what women have been dealing with.
Jokes like these seem innocent and misunderstood at first until they stop becoming just something comedians say on stage and start becoming something people openly express on the streets to women.
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