Shane Gillis returned to host “Saturday Night Live” for the third time since his firing in 2019, appearing in a matching black T-shirt and pants for a meandering monologue about needing to lose weight and being miserable (and trying not to threaten women) while hiking.
“I tried going to a public gym. Going to a public gym as a big guy, especially in New York, is a nightmare, man,” he said. “They’re just the hottest gay guys you’ve ever seen. They’re jerking off and they’re looking at me like, ‘Yeah, that’s true.’ ‘I know, man.’
“Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long I didn’t know women dress like whores now?” » he cracked to the groans of the audience in the studio. “Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe it. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. Have you seen the shorts? They’re these neon colored shorts, like artificial, and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the asshole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look, because they’re filming. I’m in the background of ten TikToks right now. (smiling).
There was much more, of course. Gillis lashed out at his “two big, fat slut sisters” who heckled him by saying “the nastiest things,” like calling him “bitch hips,” and mocked how his receding hairline is starting to make him look like a certain fascist leader.
“I’ll tell you what really bothers me is that I ended up bald straight from an Adolf Hitler haircut,” he joked. “And it’s not GOOD. Because I give a lot of speeches and the facade often falls off, and there’s no way to adjust it without looking exactly like (Hitler). It’s the only way. I’m not going to (put it aside), it’s gay. That’s it: either you’re gay or you’re Hitler, and isn’t that where we are as a country? There was little laughter, then everything stopped abruptly. Gillis has shown considerable comedic talents in his stand-up specials and hosting the ESPYs, but nailing an “SNL” monologue seems elusive for him.
Gillis, 38, has had a very eventful “SNL” journey.
In September 2019, he was announced as one of the sketch series’ new cast members, alongside Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang. He was fired five days later after clips resurfaced from Gillis’ podcast in which he mocked Asians and used anti-gay slurs — which seemed even worse given that Yang had just made history as the first “SNL” cast member of full Asian descent (and third openly gay male cast member ever). Gillis went on to make a name for himself without “SNL” with a popular podcast, two stand-up specials, creating and starring in the Netflix series “Tires” and playing a role in the upcoming biopic “Madden.”
“SNL” creator Lorne Michaels would later admit that he was forced to kick Gillis against his will by NBC executives, telling the Wall Street Journal: “It was very strong on the part of the people in charge. And obviously I wasn’t on that side, but I understood it.” And since then, it seems Michaels has been on a mission to make it up to Gillis, offering him the role of Donald Trump for the 50th season of “SNL” (Gillis turned it down) and allowing him to host the show three times. While Gillis bombed his monologue during his first stint in 2024, later accusing the Gen Z crowd of not understanding his Civil War jokes, he has since been impressed by popular sketches like “CouplaBeers.”
Gn entert
