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Shane Gillis’s Saturday Night Live appearance riled the internet, as well as some of the show’s stars and alums.
The controversial comedian, 38, set off an internet firestorm over his comments about women during Saturday’s show. In his opening monologue, Gillis said that women at the gym “dress like wh***s now”, adding: “Look, I’m sorry there’s no other way to describe it.” He then raised eyebrows when he accidentally blurted out “f***” in a Dr. Seuss-themed skit.
In the following days, dozens of celebrities have spoken out against Gillis, including Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy, Elizabeth Banks, Martha Plimpton, and others.
Gillis’s performance prompted several SNL alums and stars to weigh in, including current Weekend Update anchor Michael Che.
Che is actively promoting his new Netflix special, Michael Che: Shot in Minnesota, and was displeased by how Gillis’s comments and the surrounding backlash will affect him.
Michael Che spoke out about Shane Gillis’s ‘SNL’ monologue (Getty)
In a carousel Instagram post, Che wrote: “Gotta do more press this week to promote the special…wonder what every f***ing questions gonna be about ..thanks a lot shane.”
It’s not clear whether Che was being sarcastic or not, as some online suspected.
SNL alum Ego Nwodim also chimed in. She shared a selfie from the gym on her Instagram Story with the caption, “Wh*** reporting for duty.”
In a follow-up, she shared a photo of her post-gym meal with the caption, “Getting my 30 grams of protein in after heauxing.”
Nwodim joined the show in 2018 and left in 2025.
Ego Nwodim directly called out Gillis’s remarks about women (Getty)
Levy, though not a member of the SNL family, didn’t hold back in his criticism of Gillis, especially given the current discussions around the Cornell 7 case — the alleged 2024 gang rape by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University — that has sparked nationwide outrage.
In a video posted Monday to Instagram, Levy said, “Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them wh***s, it makes the men calling them wh***s misogynists. There’s a difference there,” Levy said, adding that he’d “seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.”
He continued: “I’m speechless that something like that can exist on live national television, and to be honest more men need to be standing up in opposition to it, because it’s complacency that has created the environment with which women are sexually assaulted and it’s a ’conversation’ as opposed to a crime.
“Men need to be defending women more. This is not a women’s issue, this is an everybody issue. Because the more that men objectify women in the media, the more that other men see them as objects and treat them as objects.”
Levy ended his video by reiterating that women “are not objects”, before playfully adding: “They are superior human beings to men. And I’m sorry if this gets me in trouble with the internet, but f***.”