The comedian’s opening remarks on ‘SNL’s’ Oct. 10 episode included a comment about women dressing like “whores” at the gym

NEED TO KNOW

• Shane Gillis is addressing the response to his Saturday Night Live monologue on the Nov. 13 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast
• The comedian said women dress like “whores” at the gym, during his Saturday, Oct. 10 remarks, prompting backlash from high-profile viewers including Dan Levy
• Gillis shared that SNL did not approve his opening monologue and he promised them that there would be “no controversy” in it

Shane Gillis is speaking out after backlash to his latest Saturday Night Live monologue.

The Tires star and comedian, 38, discussed his Oct. 10 SNL monologue during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. While opening the show, Gillis stated, “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?”

“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-colored. And the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combined at the butthole. 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.”

One of Rogan’s co-hosts pointed out on the Nov. 13 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience that he had heard Gillis perform the same bit at New York City’s Comedy Cellar the week before and suggested that SNL had approved the material. Gillis pushed back on that characterization, saying, “Not to defend SNL, they don’t approve it. I mean, they could shut it down.”

“They could, but you don’t write your set and give it to them,” he explained. “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.”

“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 fucking 10 minutes. That’s it.’ ”

He added that he believed the audience’s reaction and the online backlash “obviously had a lot to do with the climate” at the time. Addressing his comments about women’s gym attire, Gillis clarified, “for the record, [I] don’t have a problem with it.”

The comedian also reflected on how he handled the renewed attention differently from the first time he faced controversy surrounding SNL. He was fired from the show in 2019 due to past racial and homophobic comments just four days after his casting was announced.

“The first time I got fired, I kept social media and in my head I was like, ‘That guy talked shit.’ This time, I just deleted everything immediately. So, I don’t really know,” Gillis said, reflecting on how he handled the online backlash.

His response comes after several high-profile SNL fans, including former host Dan Levy, expressed disappointment in his comments. Levy posted an Instagram reel the day after Gillis’ SNL episode aired, writing that 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, 43, said. “By the way, I’ve seen more men’s nipples in the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.”

Levy added that “more men need to be standing up in opposition to it.”

“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 Big Mistakes creator 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?”

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PEOPLE reached out to representatives for Gillis and SNL, but they did not immediately respond.

Elizabeth Banks, Laraine Newman, Sophia Bush and Hannah Einbinder were among those to show support for Levy’s response video.

Comedian Phoebe Robinson also shared her perspective on Gillis’ comments, calling out “mediocre bulls— ” with an Instagram Reel. “Aren’t we tired,” she asked. “Aren’t we sick of this misogynistic, lazy-ass, hack, mediocre, straight-male f—— disdain for women that’s masked as f—— comedy? Don’t we want better?”

SNL alum Ego Nwodim also addressed Gillis’ monologue. On Monday, Oct. 12, Nwodim, 38, posted a mirror selfie of herself at the gym to her Instagram Stories, along with the caption, “whore reporting for duty.” 

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