Shane Gillis was slammed online for his ‘horrendous’ Saturday Night Live monologue this weekend – even by some viewers who normally enjoy his work.
In 2019, Gillis was hired as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, only to be fired when old jokes resurfaced of him mocking gay people and people of Asian descent.
He was defended by iconic Saturday Night Live alum Norm Macdonald – who himself had been fired from the show for his OJ Simpson jokes – and ultimately made a triumphant return last year to host the program.
Although he was warmly received during his first outing on the sketch show, his latest monologue drew a tepid response from the studio audience.
When his material making fun of Joe Biden was met with a mild laugh, the comic said: ‘Look, I get it, you’re pretty liberal here.’
He nervously made his way through the monologue, at one point awkwardly saying: ‘All right, I don’t know how to get out of this joke.’
Shane Gillis was slammed online for his ‘horrendous’ Saturday Night Live monologue this weekend – even by some viewers who normally enjoy his work
Early in the monologue, Gillis ribbed US President Donald Trump for his ‘fifth grade level ideas,’ like renaming the Gulf Of Mexico or annexing Greenland.
‘Now I want Greenland. I never even thought about Greenland. Now it’s all I think about,’ he quipped to a tepid response from the audience.
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He then turned his attention to the other side, saying: ‘My favorite thing about Biden was, anytime he was given a speech, in between teleprompters his face would go back to being dead,’ along with an impression of Biden.
When that line drew only a lukewarm laugh, Gillis acknowledged that ‘you’re pretty liberal here’ and joked that the crowd’s politics made them feel ‘powerful like a Sith.’
He then informed the crowd he was ‘going to lose you even more’ before beginning a politically incorrect bit about white boyfriends asking their girlfriends whether they had ever been intimate with a black man before.
Gillis’ then took aim at the new Ken Burns documentary about the Civil War, joking that his work causes women to ‘fall asleep immediately.’
He vamped: ‘That’s a Cosby tip for you: Who needs roofies when we have Ken Burns presents the history of the buffalo on PBS?’
As he continued his bit about the documentary, he wound up lingering on historian Shelby Foote’s contribution, spinning his wheels until he ultimately admitted to the audience: ‘All right, I don’t know how to get out of this joke.’
Although he was warmly received during his first outing on the sketch show, his latest monologue drew a tepid response from the studio audience
He nervously made his way through the monologue, at one point awkwardly saying: ‘All right, I don’t know how to get out of this joke’
Many viewers were scathing about the monologue on X, formerly Twitter, with one saying: ‘I didn’t laugh one time,’ and another said: ‘that was rough’
Gillis had his defenders as well, some of whom reacted to the monologue with crying laughing emoji as another said ‘Soo good!’ and another said he ‘crushed it’
Many viewers were scathing about the monologue on X, formerly Twitter, with one saying: ‘I didn’t laugh one time,’ and another said: ‘that was rough.’
‘Nerves get all of us,’ one wrote sympathetically as another called the monologue ‘pretty bad’ and yet another joked that he ‘bombed bigly.’
‘That may have been the worst monologue of all time,’ one viewer marveled as another dismissed the jokes as ‘Unfunny to the extreme.’
‘I love Shane, but this monologue just isn’t up to par with his his typical standup,’ one fan opined, while another concurred: ‘As a fan of his comedy, this is painful to watch.’
‘Love Shane, but this is bad lol,’ another viewer wrote on X, saying the monologue felt ‘Like he’s making it up as he goes,’ and adding: ‘Great he nerds out to Civil War docs, but to spend 3 minutes out of 8 on it doesn’t make sense.’
Gillis had his defenders as well, some of whom reacted to the monologue with crying laughing emoji as another said ‘Soo good!’ and another said he ‘crushed it,’ with another theorizing: ‘It must pain the snl libs to have Shane Gillis on there.’