Shane Gillis’ third turn hosting Saturday Night Live was supposed to be a victory lap. Instead, one line from his opening monologue has become the most talked-about moment of the season, and not in a good way.
The Joke That Didn’t Land
During the October 10 episode, which also featured musical guest Rosalía, Gillis riffed about needing to get back in shape. “I haven’t been to the gym in so long,” he said. “I didn’t know women just dressed like whores now. Look, I’m sorry. There’s no other way to describe it.” He went on about the bright workout shorts women wear and how men aren’t allowed to look.
The studio audience didn’t exactly roar. Online, the reaction was even colder, with viewers calling the bit tone-deaf, particularly as conversations about sexual assault and the alleged Cornell fraternity case have dominated headlines in recent weeks.
Watch the monologue for yourself on SNL’s official YouTube channel:
The clip passed a million views on SNL’s YouTube channel within two days.
Hollywood Weighs In
Dan Levy led the charge in an Instagram video. “Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There’s a difference there,” he said, adding that he was “speechless that something like that can exist on live national television” and calling on more men to speak up. “This is an everybody issue,” he said.
Elizabeth Banks was among the many celebrities who joined the backlash. Former cast member Ego Nwodim answered with humor, posting a gym selfie captioned “Wh*** reporting for duty,” followed by a post-workout meal “after heauxing.” Her former castmate Cecily Strong shared her own gym-gear photo too.
Over on The View, the panel played Levy’s video. Sara Haines said that while she usually defends comedy, language like that makes it “much easier to look at another human as an object.” Alyssa Farah Griffin, a self-described Gillis fan, had a simpler take: it “was just not a funny opening monologue.”
Not everyone at 30 Rock was up in arms. Weekend Update anchor Michael Che shrugged it off. “That’s comedy. It’s like, you think it’s funny and then some people don’t,” he said, adding that he was at cue cards during the monologue and didn’t see it until the next day. He did joke on Instagram that he’d now be fielding questions about it while promoting his Netflix special: “thanks a lot shane.”
Ratings Up, Silence From the Show
Controversy or not, people watched. The episode drew 4.4 million viewers according to Nielsen Live+Same Day data, up slightly from the week before and Gillis’ best-rated hosting stint yet.
Gillis also dropped an accidental F-bomb during a Dr. Seuss-themed sketch and apologized for it on air, twice. Critics were quick to point out that the monologue got no such apology. Neither SNL nor Gillis has publicly responded to the backlash.
SNL is now on a two-week break, returning October 31. Plenty of time for the internet to keep talking.
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