Standup comedian Shane Gillis has come under fire for delivering what many people are calling a misogynistic joke about the way women dress at the gym during his “Saturday Night Live” monologue.
Gillis, who hosted the Oct. 10 episode of the sketch comedy show, began the bit by explaining how difficult it is for him to work out at a health club.
“Going to the public gym as a fat guy, especially in New York, is a nightmare, dude. It’s just the hottest gay guys you’ve ever seen. They’re jacked, and they look at me like, ‘Yeah, right.’ I know, dude,” he began.
“Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long. I didn’t know women just dressed like whores now,” he continued. “Look, I’m sorry. There’s no other way to describe — have you seen it? I’ve seen it. The shorts. Have you seen the shorts?
Social media lit up with people blasting Gillis.
“Women wearing shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists,” Emmy-winning “Schitt’s Creek” star Dan Levy said in an Instagram reel.
“I’m speechless that something like that can exist on live national television,” he added.
Comedian Phoebe Robinson posted a video of herself reacting to the joke.
“Women are dressed like whores? What is the joke?” she said in part.
BuzzFeed Editorial Director Spencer Althouse described the monologue on X as “very awkward,” while another viewer wrote, “This is so disgusting.”
“I don’t know what turns my stomach more, the fact that Shane Gillis was on Saturday Night Live tonight and said women at the gym ‘dress like whores’ or that there was people in that audience who found his disgusting bit of so-called humor funny,” someone else wrote on X.
“have you at any point considered that women are tired of being called ‘whores’ for existing in public,” another user replied to someone on X who said the monologue was “funny.”
Feminist writer Jessica Valenti also posted a TikTok video about the joke in the context of the investigation into a rape allegation at Cornell University, captioning it, “I am LIVID.”
“Shane Gillis knows that there is a major national conversation happening right now about sexual assault,” Valenti said in part.
“And so I don’t want to hear a single f------ word about how this was just in bad taste, this was a mistake, he didn’t realize, it was just tone deaf. No,” Valenti added.
TODAY.com has reached out to representatives for “Saturday Night Live” and Gillis for comment but did not immediately hear back.
In his monologue, Gillis also faced backlash for jokes referring to his older siblings as his “two big fat b---- sisters” and comparing his hairline to Hitler’s.
Gillis’ comedy career has boomed in recent years. In July, he set a Guinness World Record for most tickets sold for a comedy show by a solo comedian. He starred in the comedy series “Tires” and headlined his own comedy special, “Beautiful Dogs,” both on Netflix. He has also appeared in multiple Bud Light commercials.
Gillis has courted controversy with “SNL” before. In 2019, he was fired from the show days after it was announced that he was joining the cast due to resurfaced clips of Gillis using racist slurs and making homophobic jokes on a podcast. Despite his firing, he went on to host “SNL” in 2024 and 2025.
“Most of you probably have no idea who I am … I was fired from this show,” Gillis said in his 2024 “SNL” monologue. “A while ago. But, you know. Don’t look that up, please.”