Shane Gillis hopped on Joe Rogan’s podcast to address his controversial Saturday Night Live monologue last month.
During his mediocre stint on the stage, during which he name drops Rogan’s sauna, the comedian said that women who wear workout clothes at the gym were “dressing like whores.” When recalling the controversy with Rogan, Gillis said that the NBC sketch comedy show didn’t remove the joke from his monologue because they don’t review it before it goes on air. “Not to defend SNL, they don’t approve it. I mean, they could shut it down,” he said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “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.”
Notably, most non-comedians have their monologues penned by the staff, with Taylor Swift (who memorably wrote her monologue song in 2009) being the exception. And while SNL did inquire about Gillis’ monologue, he promised them there would be nothing to fuss over. “The funniest part was, 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 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 fucking 10 minutes. That’s it.’”
Gillis was fired from SNL in 2019 for racist and homophobic comments, but has been invited back to host three times since. During his recent appearance, he not only infuriated viewers but dropped a F-bomb during one of the sketches, a Dr. Seuss-themed bit titled “Green Eggs and Ham.”
Following Gillis’ monologue, several celebrities responded in the aftermath, with many describing him as a misogynist. Among them, Maren Morris gave the comedian the middle finger. The singer posted a video of herself on Instagram with the text “me being a wh0re at the gym,” which was accompanied by her song, “Be a Bitch.” The song features the chorus: “Breaking my neck from turning my cheek/ Killing with kindness only killed me/ If the truth means I’m a little too mean/ Tried to fake nice, but it didn’t quite stick/ I’d rather be a bitch.”
Elsewhere, former SNL star Ego Nwodim posted a gym selfie to her Instagram Stories on Monday with the caption, “whore reporting for duty,” and Dan Levy shared an Instagram video saying he was “speechless that something like that can exist on live national television.”
