Shane Gillis responds to backlash after controversial comments about women on SNL
Shane Gillis has responded to the backlash of his controversial remarks made during last month’s Saturday Night Live monologue.
The comedian sparked major opinions on his joke regarding women’s gym clothing on 10 October when he took to the New York show’s stage and called short shorts, ‘whore’ attire.
However, the response to his joke was swift, with celebrities and public commenters immediately taking issue with it.
Gillis stated as he opened the show: “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?”
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“Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it],” he continued. “Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. The shorts. Have you seen the shorts? Those neon, they’re like artificial bait-coloured. And the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combined at the butthole.”
He added: “And don’t look, you’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look because they are filming. I’m in the background of like 10 TikToks right now.”
Now, in his 13 November appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, he revealed that he doesn’t actually ‘have a problem with’ women’s gym attire, and that he wasn’t expecting any controversy.
He explained that he wrote his set, and when asked about it by SNL bosses before he went on to perform, he told them he was giving them ‘C minus’ material.
He said: “The funniest part was, I was going in going— they were like, ‘What’s going on with the monologue?’ And I was like, ‘It’s not great, but I don’t say anything bad.’ ”
He continued: “The whole time, I was like, ‘Fellas, I’m giving you a solid C minus of a monologue, but I promise there’s no controversy. I’m calling myself fat for f****** 10 minutes. That’s it.’ ”
He added that the backlash to his joke ‘obviously had a lot to do with the climate’ at the time, but ‘for the record, [I] don’t have a problem with’ the shorts.
His response comes after former SNL hosts and stars like Dan Levy, Ego Nwodim and Inde Navarrette made a dig at Gillis in the aftermath.
Navarette, who hosted SNL’s Halloween episode, began her monologue by speaking about her character in the hit horror, Obsession, before teasing her upcoming role as Rogue in X-Men.
Because of the training involved, Navarrette joked: “I know it’s really important for Marvel that you get really fit, so I've been working out a lot. So every morning I put on my little whore outfit, and I hit the gym.”
As for Levy, he posted an Instagram reel the day after Gillis’ SNL episode where he said he was ‘speechless that something like that can exist on live national television.’
“Women wearing short shorts to the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores, misogynists. There’s a difference there,” Levy said. “By the way, I’ve seen more men’s nipples in the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.”
Nwodim went on to address Gillis’ monologue on 12 October by posting a mirror selfie of herself at the gym and captioning it: “whore reporting for duty.”
Other celeb reactions include comedian Phoebe Robinson, who asked online: “Aren’t we sick of this misogynistic, lazy-a**, hack, mediocre, straight-male f***** disdain for women that’s masked as f****** comedy? Don’t we want better?”
However, Dana Carvey, another SNL alum, revealed on his Fly on the Wall podcast: “I just didn’t understand the kerfuffle only because, to me, I just saw it as what we call — I’ll just say it — a joke.”
Tyla reached out to Shane Gillis’ representatives for comment.
Britt Jones
