Shane Gillis’s stand-up has always struck me as simmering with anger. Once you notice it, it is difficult not to hear something darker beneath the jokes—something approaching genuine resentment.
That may sound like an absurd way to interpret a comedian’s act, but after working with numerous stand-ups as a radio and television producer, I learned that jokes are rarely only jokes. Punchlines often conceal a deeper truth.
Think of the overweight schoolboy who learned to protect himself by making the joke first, or the outsider who turned his perceived strangeness into an entire comic persona. The origins of the material are usually there, embedded in the routine.
If I were to speculate about Gillis’s motivation, I might wonder whether an average white man rejected by women chose to turn that pain and anger into comedy aimed at belittling the opposite sex.
During his Saturday Night Live monologue last week, Gillis made the mistake angry men often make: he allowed the mask to slip.
On Saturday, viewers heard the comedian deliver what was, in my view, a spectacularly poor performance.
“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like w***es now. Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it]. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. You’ve seen the shorts? They’re those neon, like, artificial bait-colored [shorts], and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the b******e. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look.”
You might have assumed someone had unearthed an old SNL clip from 2006. Instead, Gillis delivered those remarks in 2026, while public attention remains fixed on the allegations surrounding the Cornell sexual assault case.
During his Saturday Night Live monologue last week, Shane Gillis made the mistake angry men often make
Humor and hatred are a toxic combination
But go on, Shane—where is the punchline? Apparently, there wasn’t one, unless you count a weak aside about appearing in “the background of like 10 TikToks.”
He even asked the audience whether they had seen the shorts, seemingly inviting knowing laughter from the men in the room. The response, however, suggested they were not willing to be led along.
I have seen this kind of comedy before. I once produced a radio programme with a comedian whose style was remarkably similar to Gillis’s. Misogynistic jokes were among his favourite material.
On one occasion, he targeted a woman who had been publicly caught breaching Covid lockdown rules. His supposedly funny one-liner was a vicious call to action: “Go hang yourself.” Predictably, the remark prompted an HR meeting and was followed by an on-air apology.
The irony was that only days later, this profoundly average comedian appeared on the front page of a newspaper after being caught breaking lockdown restrictions himself.
I also remember him telling a female co-host during an advert break, “If you interrupt me one more time while I’m talking, I will drag you out of this studio by the hair.” That supposedly hilarious “banter” ended with his dismissal. In my view, he brought it on himself.
Because humor and hatred do not belong together.
Gillis’s Saturday routine was damaging. Even his sisters were not spared: he referred to them as “two big fat b***h sisters” and described one as having “trucker forearms.” It was another example of the comedian’s disparaging style—one that drew renewed attention given that he was fired from SNL in 2019 after podcast clips containing anti-Asian slurs and other derogatory remarks emerged.
Gillis also recalled one sister calling him “b***h hips” when he was a child lying on the floor watching television. By his own telling, the insult stayed with him and left a lasting mark.
I am no Freud, but it is fair to wonder whether the women he saw at the gym were being made to pay for wounds he says his sisters inflicted decades ago.
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Could some of that childhood humiliation still be doing the talking? He’d just explained how deeply an insult from a woman could lodge, while handing out fresh ones to women who’d done nothing but get dressed for a workout.
Shane, buddy, are we discussing gym shorts, or are we still fighting over the TV remote?
It’s, frankly, embarrassing. Not material for the stage but for his therapist’s couch in my opinion.
Oh well, that’s ok – probably only around five million people watched him make a fool of himself on live TV.
Wait, no, sorry, I just checked my notes. We should probably include the tens of millions of views Dan Levy’s Instagram reel has garnered since he explicitly called out Shane’s disgusting ‘joke’: ‘Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them w***es. It makes the men calling them w***es misogynists.’
Hannah Einbinder, Viola Davis and Elizabeth Banks are among the celebrities who praised Dan’s take-down.
Dan Levy’s Instagram reel called out Shane’s disgusting ‘joke’: ‘Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them w***es. It makes the men calling them w***es misogynists’
Actress Elizabeth Banks commented in support on Dan Levy’s Instagram reel: ‘Nailed it’
Although he has been an SNL three times, Shane was fired as a cast member in 2019 after podcast clips featuring his anti-Asian slurs and derogatory remarks surfaced
Former ‘SNL’ Star Ego Nwodim took to Instagram on Monday to post an image of herself at the gym with the caption, ‘W***e reporting for duty’ – a better punchline than Gillis has ever delivered.
Smart, intelligent, funny women all absolutely miffed by Shane’s mean-spirited, tone-deaf attempt at humor.
I mean, who can argue with Dan’s clapback: ‘I’ve seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.’
A thoroughly reasonable observation, and one I’m happy to endorse.
I’ve seen men in gym tanks cut so generously down the sides that the shirt is essentially a necklace. Others eschew the top layer entirely.
Good for them. Enjoy the results, boys. Some of us women enjoy them too.
And yet, somehow, we manage to finish our workouts without deciding that the man on the chest press is asking for it because his shirt is skin-tight.
But a woman wears shorts that flatter her bottom and suddenly Shane labels her a w***e?
And describing those shorts as ‘bait’ invites another question: what, exactly, does he think the woman wearing them owes the man who looks? Or, worse, what does he think it gives him license to do?
Comedian Phoebe Robinson has urged Shane to write better material. I would offer a better solution: retire.
Oh, and get some therapy. Your hatred is not our problem and calling us w***es won’t make it funny.