Shane Gillis Says 'SNL' Never Saw the Monologue Coming: 'A Solid C Minus'

Shane Gillis says he never expected his Oct. 10 "Saturday Night Live" monologue to cause controversy — and claims he warned everyone in the building that the material was mediocre but harmless.

Speaking on the Nov. 13 episode of the "Joe Rogan Experience," Gillis addressed the backlash to his jokes about how women dress at the gym, which included the line: "I haven't been to the gym in so long, I didn't know women just dress like whores now?"

"The funniest part was, I was going in going — 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,'" Gillis told Rogan. "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.'"

What did the monologue actually say?

The bit ran through Gillis's observations on gym fashion. "Look, I'm sorry, there's no other way to describe it. Have you seen it? I've seen it. The shorts," he said during the broadcast. "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."

The joke triggered a wave of criticism on social media. It also drew a direct response from Inde Navarrette during her own "SNL" monologue later in the season.

Did 'SNL' approve the material?

Gillis says no — and that the show's process effectively lets stand-up comics walk in with their own set. "Not to defend 'SNL,' they don't approve it. I mean, they could shut it down," he said. "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."

That distinction matters. Gillis, a touring stand-up, delivers a monologue he wrote himself; the show retains the power to cut it, but doesn't pre-clear the script with experienced comics.

What does this change for Gillis?

Probably little, and he seems to know it. He told Rogan the reaction "obviously had a lot to do with the climate" rather than the joke itself. And on the substance of the gym-attire material, he offered a flat retraction of any implied judgment: "for the record, [I] don't have a problem with it."

The episode shows the fault line that hosted comedians keep hitting on live television — a club-tested set can read very differently at 11:30 p.m. on NBC, and Gillis has now learned where that line sits for this season's audience.