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Comedian Shane Gillis has addressed the backlash over his controversial Saturday Night Live monologue, clarifying that he “doesn’t have a problem” with how women dress in the gym.
Gillis, 38, addressed the controversy Friday on The Joe Rogan Experience more than a month after his October 10 hosting appearance, admitting he hadn’t expected his gym attire jokes to spark such a strong reaction.
During his opening monologue, Gillis said, “I haven’t been to the gym in so long. I didn’t know women just dress like whores now,” drawing criticism from viewers and even former SNL hosts and cast members, who accused him of making misogynistic remarks.
Reflecting on the episode, Gillis told Rogan that he had assured SNL producers his material wouldn’t cause controversy, even though he wasn’t particularly confident in the jokes.
“The funniest part was, I was going in — 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,’” Gillis said.
“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***ing 10 minutes. That’s it,’” Gillis told Rogan.
Gillis mocked women’s tight, colorful gym shorts in his monologue, joking that men risk being caught looking if women are recording social media videos.
Rogan said that he thought women’s gym clothes were “very sexualized.”
“For the record, [I] don’t have a problem with it,” Gillis chimed in, telling Rogan that he believed the negative reaction “obviously had a lot to do with the climate.” Another guest then mentioned the case of the alleged gang-rape of a former Cornell University student, which was dominating the news agenda at the time of Gillis’s SNL appearance.
Gillis also claimed SNL provided no feedback on the joke before the broadcast.
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“Not to defend SNL, they don’t approve it. I mean, they could shut it down,” he said to Rogan. “They could, but you don’t write your set and give it to them. Unless you’re not a comedian. I’m sure non-comics, they write the set for them. They have writers that write the monologue for them.”
Former SNL host Dan Levy, who co-created and starred in Schitt’s Creek, was among those who criticized Gillis, calling his remarks misogynistic in an Instagram video the day after the episode aired.
Levy also expressed disappointment that the joke aired on live television and urged men to speak out against the objectification of women.
“Because it’s complacency that has created the environment in which women are sexually assaulted and it’s a ‘conversation’ as opposed to a crime,” the actor said.
“Men need to be defending women more. This is not a women’s issue. This is an everybody issue. Because the more that men objectify women in the media, the more that other men see them as objects and treat them as objects. They are not objects. They are superior human beings to men, OK?” Levy said.
Weeks after Gillis’ episode, Obsession star Inde Navarrette took a swipe at him in her own SNL opening monologue.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m going to be in a Marvel movie,” Navarrette, who will be playing Rogue in the new X-Men movie, said on the Halloween episode. “And 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.”
Gillis has a complicated relationship with SNL. In 2019, he was fired just days after being announced as a new cast member when resurfaced podcast recordings showed him making racist and homophobic remarks.
He eventually returned to Studio 8H as a host in February 2024 and again in March 2025. His October 10 appearance marked his third time hosting the NBC comedy show.