Shane Gillis Says SNL Didn’t Vet His Monologue, Calls It “a Solid C Minus
A month after hosting Saturday Night Live on October 10, comedian Shane Gillis spoke on The Joe Rogan Experience about the backlash to his opening monologue. He explained why the show kept a gym joke about women and said he had promised there would be no controversy.
Comedian Shane Gillis addressed the backlash to his Saturday Night Live opening monologue on The Joe Rogan Experience, about a month after he hosted the NBC show's October 10 episode. He said the show did not cut a joke accusing women of "dressing like whores" at the gym.
Gillis said the writers' room does not vet a comedian's set the way people might assume. "Not to defend SNL, they don't approve it. I mean, they could shut it down," he said.
'A solid C minus'
He argued that comedians write their own material, unlike non-comics who have writers prepare a monologue for them. Gillis said the show's staff did ask what was going on with his monologue ahead of the broadcast.
His answer, he recalled, was blunt. "Fellas, I'm giving you a solid C minus of a monologue but I promise there's no controversy," he said he told them. He added that he spent roughly 10 minutes calling himself fat.
Off social media
Gillis was fired from the SNL cast in 2019, before his first episode, and said this round has been different. He deleted his social media accounts right away this time.
"The first time I got fired, I kept social media and in my head I was like, 'That guy talked shit,'" he said. "This one I just deleted everything immediately. So, I don't really know."
He also joked about "bumping" critical comedians from his tour dates. Then he walked it back, saying his agent had suggested it as a joke and that he does not think anyone touring talks badly about him.
Critics and defenders
Several comedians and actors have criticized Gillis since the episode. They include Kathy Griffin, Dan Levy and Inde Navarrette, who took a shot at him on the following week's SNL. Ego Nwodim, an SNL alum, and Ania Magliano of SNL UK, on that show's "Weekend Update," also called him out.
Dana Carvey, David Spade and Jimmy Carr have defended him.
The October episode was Gillis's third time hosting, after appearances in 2024 and 2025. NBC removed him from the featured cast days after announcing him in 2019, when videos resurfaced of him mocking Asian accents and using ethnic and gay slurs.
