Michael Che braces for possible questions over Shane Gillis’ controversial monologue on Saturday evening live last weekend, and the time has come.
“I have to do more press this week to promote the special. I wonder what every damn question is going to be about,” Che wrote on his Instagram earlier this week, about the press tour for his new Netflix stand-up special, Michael Che: shot dead in Minnesota. “Thank you so much Shane.”
For context, after hosting NBC’s sketch comedy program Saturday, Gillis gained attention for his joke about women working out.
“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women dress like whores now,” Gillis told the live audience. “Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe it. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. The shorts? Have you seen the shorts? They’re neon colored, like artificial bait? And the lines 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 about 10 TikToks right now.”
Although he is adamant that he does not wish to intervene in the speech, Che, who presents “Weekend Update” with Colin Jost on SNLwas asked on the Today show Thursday about the controversy.
“It’s comedy,” he said. “It’s like you think it’s funny and some people don’t.”
He was then asked if he laughed at Gillis’ joke about women, to which Che replied: “Actually, I was at the cue cards, thinking about what I was going to say that was going to piss people off. I didn’t even see it until the next day.”
Che is no stranger to controversial jokes, especially during his biannual joke exchange with Jost on SNLwhere the jokes can get quite risky.
“That’s why I can’t blame anyone for swinging and missing, because I definitely swung and missed too,” the comedian said on Today. “I try to keep this heat out of me.”
After receiving some backlash for his remarks on the NBC morning show, Che responded to a fan on Instagram who asked why he had no problem calling Kanye “Ye” West in the past, but not Gillis.
“That’s a good question. Especially since when I called Kanye, I did it privately. I didn’t know he was filming. The thing is, when I have a problem with someone, I address it in person. Not through the media. I’m not going to drag someone onto the stage. Today show, when I can just text them. It’s a courtesy that’s been extended to me in the past, and I like to pay it forward.
After Gillis’ monologue, Dan Levy was among the celebrities who slammed the comedian for his joke about women at the gym. “Women who wear short shorts to the gym don’t make them whores. It makes men call them misogynists. There’s a difference there,” she said. Schitt Creek co-creator and star wrote in part.
Levy added in her Instagram post: “I’m speechless that something like this could exist on live national television. And to be perfectly honest, more men need to stand up against this because it’s complacency that has created the environment where women are sexually assaulted and it’s a ‘conversation’ as opposed to a ‘crime.’
Ancient SNL Actor Ego Nwodim also responded with a photo of herself at the gym with the caption “Damn at work.”
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