Shane Gillis Grades His Own SNL Monologue a C Minus

Shane Gillis has graded his own Saturday Night Live monologue a C minus. He delivered the verdict himself, on The Joe Rogan Experience, while reliving last month's controversy over his opening set.

The problem line: Gillis said women who wear workout clothes at the gym are "dressing like whores." The joke aired anyway, and Gillis explained why NBC never caught it — nobody read it first.

"Not to defend SNL, they don't approve it. I mean, they could shut it down," Gillis told Rogan. "They could, but you don't write your set and give it to them. Unless you're not a comedian. I'm sure non-comics, they write the set for them. They have writers that write the monologue for them."

He's partly right about the mechanics. Most non-comedian hosts get their monologues written by staff. Taylor Swift is the famous exception, having written her own monologue song in 2009.

Did SNL ask any questions first?

They did. Gillis says the show inquired about the monologue before air, and he reassured them. Sort of.

"The funniest part was, they were like, 'What's going on with the monologue?' And I was like, 'It's not great but I don't say anything bad,'" he recalled. "The whole time, I was like, 'Fellas, I'm giving you a solid C minus of a monologue but I promise there's no controversy. I'm calling myself fat for fucking 10 minutes. That's it.'"

The self-assessment proved generous. The monologue, which included a name-drop of Rogan's sauna, also produced an F-bomb later in the episode — dropped during a Dr. Seuss-themed sketch titled "Green Eggs and Ham."

The C-minus grading is the calmest part of this saga. Consider the actual timeline: Gillis was fired from SNL in 2019 over racist and homophobic comments, and has since been invited back to host three times. Live television forgives quickly, apparently, then hands you the mic again.

How did celebrities respond?

The backlash arrived promptly and on brand.

• Maren Morris posted an Instagram video captioned "me being a wh0re at the gym," soundtracked by her song "Be a Bitch." The chorus runs: "Breaking my neck from turning my cheek/ Killing with kindness only killed me/ If the truth means I'm a little too mean/ Tried to fake nice, but it didn't quite stick/ I'd rather be a bitch." She also gave the comedian the middle finger.
• Ego Nwodim, a current SNL cast member, posted a gym selfie to her Instagram Stories on Monday with the caption, "whore reporting for duty."
• Dan Levy shared an Instagram video saying he was "speechless that something like that can exist on live national television." When a former Schitt's Creek lead is speechless, the bar has genuinely moved.

What does the C minus actually tell us?

Gillis's own accounting is the most revealing detail here. A comedian who promises producers "no controversy" while planning ten minutes of self-deprecation still ends up trending for misogyny — and censoring himself apparently never made the draft. SNL's no-pre-approval policy for comedian hosts means the next C-minus set will air unchecked too, which is either the show's last defense of live comedy or its next apology-in-waiting.