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‘SNL’ Star Mocks MAGA-Friendly Host’s Cringe Monologue

Shane Gillis is facing backlash for his “misogynistic” comments.

Saturday Night Live host Shane Gillis is catching flak from celebrities over his “misogynistic” comments about women’s attire at the gym—including from SNL veteran Ego Nwodim.

Nwodim posted a photo of herself at the gym on Monday to her Instagram Stories, with the caption, “Wh--e reporting for duty,” days after Gillis declared during his opening monologue, “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like wh--es now. Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe—have you seen it?”

He went on, “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.”

Nwodim, who left the show in September 2025 after seven seasons, wore both long sleeves and long pants in her post mocking Gillis’ ill-fated quip.

His comments also drew him a fiery response from Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy: “Women wearing short shorts to the gym does not make them wh--es. It makes the men calling them wh--es, misogynists. There’s a difference there,” he said.

Others have also weighed in. Comedian Phoebe Robinson amassed nearly 74,000 likes on a video calling Gillis’ material “mediocre bulls--t.” She slammed Gillis’ monologue, “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?”

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Gillis became a bestselling comedian following his 2019 firing from SNL for using an Asian slur on his podcast.

A Vulture profile of show boss Lorne Michaels revealed that he hadn’t wanted to cut Gillis because he could draw “red-state” viewers, but NBC pressured him to. Aside from his latest controversy, the comedian also faced backlash in May for telling a joke about lynching at Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart.

Despite his MAGA appeal, he told Joe Rogan in August that he did not vote for Donald Trump.

While Instagram commenters blamed Gillis for making his “toilet humor” mainstream, others blamed Saturday Night Live for airing the monologue. “Can’t believe @nbcsnl went through a full dress rehearsal and decided that was ok to include in the Live,” one wrote under Levy’s post. Others called the joke “truly tone deaf” in the wake of the alleged gang rape case being investigated at Cornell University.

More memorable moments from Gillis’ third SNL hosting stint include the uncensored F-bomb he dropped during the “Green Eggs and Ham” sketch, and his premature departure during the show’s “good nights” segment.

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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