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Shane Gillis performing stand-up with a microphone at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, in 2025.
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Shane Gillis's SNL Monologue Backlash: What He Said, Who Pushed Back, and His History With the Show

Shane Gillis's SNL gym joke drew a week of backlash. Dave Chappelle told nearly the same joke and nothing happened. What he said, who objected, and why.

By Written Facts Staff10 min read

If you've changed into leggings or shorts before a workout this fall, you already know what started this. On October 10, 2026, Shane Gillis hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time and used part of his monologue on a joke about what women wear to the gym. Few people in the studio laughed. Online, the reaction was strong: actors, writers, a former cast member and one of the show's own staff criticized the joke. SNL itself said nothing. Below is the joke, the people who objected, and how Gillis went from being fired in 2019 to hosting three times.

The Short Answer

Gillis hosted SNL on Saturday, October 10, 2026, with Rosalía as the musical guest, early in Season 52, according to NBC News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. NBC News sums up his record with the show this way: he was "hired in 2019, fired soon after over past racist jokes, and invited back to host in 2024 and 2025." October was his third time as host.

The monologue included a joke about women's gym clothes that used the word "whores." Over the next few days the criticism spread from social media to entertainment news. People objected to the wording, and also to the timing, because the joke aired during national coverage of a sexual assault case.

As of mid-October, neither SNL nor NBC had commented publicly, as KSL and NBC News reported. The only SNL figure who said anything on the record was Michael Che, who more or less shrugged it off. The sections below cover those reactions one at a time.

What He Said

There is no full published transcript, but two outlets quoted the key lines. According to NBC News, Gillis said he "didn't know women just dress like whores now" at the gym. He described "neon, artificial-vape colored" shorts and joked that men aren't allowed to look. The Inquirer quotes him adding: "Look, I'm sorry there's no other way to describe it."

NBC News reported that the joke drew few laughs from the studio audience.

Critics said the timing made it worse. The monologue aired while news outlets were covering a former Cornell University student who says she was gang-raped at a fraternity house in 2024. NBC News reports that she has accused seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity of drugging and assaulting her. The Inquirer refers to it as the "Cornell 7" case. These are allegations and have not been proven. Several critics still pointed to the case as the reason the joke landed so badly.

The same episode had another unscripted moment. Gillis accidentally said an f-word during a Dr. Seuss-themed sketch and apologized during the show, according to both NBC News and the Inquirer. The monologue got far more attention than the slip did.

Who Pushed Back

Dan Levy posted one of the most widely shared responses, an Instagram video. "Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores," he said. He said the men making such comments are the misogynists and urged more men to speak up (NBC News, KSL). The Inquirer reported that Jenni "JWoww" Farley and Hannah Einbinder backed Levy's criticism.

Jessica Valenti, a writer on feminism, connected the joke to the news. Gillis "knows that there's a major national conversation happening right now about sexual assault," she said, as quoted by the Inquirer. NBC News reports that she called the joke his "contribution" to that conversation and described it as rape culture.

Sophia Benoit, a writer and comedian, criticized the joke as a joke. On X she wrote that it has been around for at least fifteen years and has never had a punchline she can recall (NBC News).

Two women with ties to SNL answered with sarcasm. Former cast member Ego Nwodim posted a gym mirror selfie captioned "whore reporting for duty." Cecily Strong, another SNL alum, posted a photo of her legs in workout leggings with the caption: "On my way to Pilates in my new slutty ass orange shoes and rainbow socks. Might sell sex on the way not sure" (TMZ, KSL).

Someone who works on the show also objected. KSL reported that Jessie Leo, a graphic designer at SNL, wrote on Instagram that the joke suggested a hazardous workplace and cited "rape culture and victim-blaming."

Ordinary viewers joined in on a large scale. NBC News and KSL report that hundreds of people posted criticism on TikTok, Instagram, X and Threads. Some women posted their own gym outfits. Others shared their own experiences of assault under the hashtag #iamjanedoe, which ties the reaction back to the Cornell case.

Michael Che and the Silence From SNL

The only SNL insider who spoke on the record downplayed the whole thing. On October 15, Michael Che told TODAY's Laura Jarrett: "That's comedy. It's like, you think it's funny and then some people don't." He said he was "at cue cards" during the monologue, didn't see the joke until the next day, and "didn't think about it honestly" (TODAY).

Che was doing press for his Netflix special Michael Che: Shot in Minnesota. TODAY reported that earlier that week he had posted a short line on Instagram: "thanks a lot shane."

Apart from Che's comments, none of the coverage names anyone who publicly defended the monologue. Gillis's side has also stayed quiet: NBC News and the Inquirer both reported that requests for comment went unanswered. KSL's headline put it this way: everyone has weighed in "except SNL."

Dave Chappelle Told Nearly the Same Joke

Gillis's gym bit isn't new territory. Dave Chappelle built one of his best-known routines on the same idea in his HBO special Killin' Them Softly (2000), in a clip still circulated under the title "Whore's Uniform".

In the bit, Chappelle plays a woman who objects: "Just because I'm dressed this way does not make me a whore!" He agrees with her, then compares it to himself "walking down the street in a cop uniform." Someone runs up begging "Officer, help us!", and he answers, "Just because I'm dressed this way does not make me a police officer!" The punchline: "All right, ladies, fine. You are not a whore. But you are wearing a whore's uniform" (transcription on Goodreads).

That's the same target as Gillis's joke, women's clothes, and the same word. Yet nothing happened to Chappelle over it. The routine became a fan favorite and still shows up on lists of his best stand-up (Wall Street Insanity). Some bloggers called it slut-shaming over the years, but there was no wave of celebrities, no pile-on from former colleagues and no week of headlines.

Chappelle's later controversies didn't cost him SNL either. CNN reports that SNL and Lorne Michaels never commented on the criticism of Chappelle's comments about transgender people in 2021, and that he has hosted twice since (CNN via KSL).

Critics who have compared the two say the difference is in the execution. Slate's Nadira Goffe wrote that Chappelle's most offensive jokes "at least came with a punch line" (Slate), and Chappelle's bit has a setup and a twist, while Gillis's line was mostly the insult. There are other differences too. Chappelle's bit aired on a cable stand-up special in 2000. Gillis said his on live network TV in 2026, during national coverage of a sexual assault case. Still, the joke underneath is close to the same, and only one of the two comedians is taking the heat for it.

His History With SNL

The network's silence is easier to understand once you know what happened in 2019.

2019: hired, then fired. That September, SNL announced Gillis as a featured player for season 45, along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. Within days, clips surfaced from a 2018 episode of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast in which he used a slur for Chinese people and imitated a Chinese accent (TODAY, Inquirer). The Inquirer notes the clips also included homophobic slurs, and that Gillis said his words had been taken out of context. He was fired on September 16, 2019, before he appeared in a single episode. A spokesperson for Lorne Michaels said: "We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days," and "The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable."

February 24, 2024: first time hosting. Gillis stand-up career kept growing after the firing, and he came back to Studio 8H as host in Season 49, Episode 12. He addressed the firing right away in his monologue and asked viewers not to Google it (TODAY). Reviews were mixed (PinkNews).

March 1, 2025: second time. About a year later he hosted again, with Tate McRae as musical guest (NBC Insider, Fox News). It was the first regular episode after the show's 50th-anniversary celebrations. According to a recap on AOL, his monologue started with jokes about Donald Trump and Joe Biden and then moved into racially charged material. That reviewer called the episode "crude and gross" and wrote that Gillis "rarely broke out of playing a low-energy version of himself." The reviewer gave credit to cast members, Nwodim among them, for saving some sketches.

October 10, 2026: third time. This brings the story to the gym joke. In seven years, Gillis has been fired from the show, invited back three times, and is now at the center of a controversy the show has chosen not to discuss in public.

What to Take From It

The facts are fairly clear. Gillis told a joke calling women's gym clothes "whore" attire. It got little laughter in the room and a great deal of criticism afterward. Critics included Dan Levy, Jessica Valenti and Sophia Benoit, two former cast members, and a member of the show's staff. Many people tied the joke to the Cornell allegations in the news. Michael Che shrugged it off, and as of mid-October SNL, NBC and Gillis had said nothing.

Whether the joke was harmless edgy comedy or something worse is the question people are still arguing about. One thing is easy to see from the record: since 2019, SNL has kept inviting Gillis back and staying quiet when the jokes cause trouble, the same way it kept booking Chappelle, who told a nearly identical joke years earlier and never paid for it.

Sources (15)

Photo: Shane Gillis by Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0.