SNL band members appeared glum as former cast member Shane Gillis made his controversial return as host with a shockingly risque monologue.
Shane Gillis, who became a huge online star after he was ousted from SNL over racist and homophobic remarks, stunned Saturday’s audience with an eight-minute monologue that joked about Down syndrome, sex toys, race and gays.
But his jokes seemed to leave the show’s band members ‘annoyed’ and ‘displeased’, fans have claimed, especially guitarist Maddie Rice who appeared to be ‘staring daggers’ during the performance.
Rice, who has played with the SNL band since 2020, maintained an unaltering look of ‘rage’ throughout Gillis’ ‘train wreck’ of a monologue, fans alleged, with some noting that her expression ‘reflected how I felt too’.
The late-night show has also faced calls from NFL fans in Wisconsin demanding that the comedian’s ‘highly offensive and racist’ skit be taken down after he included a bit about a Green Bay Packers themed sex toy.
Saturday’s appearance was the first time that Gillis, 36, has appeared on the show since having been fired in 2019.
SNL band members appeared glum as former cast member Shane Gillis (front) made his controversial return as host on Saturday with a shockingly risque monologue. Guitarist Maddie Rice (back left) who appeared to be ‘staring daggers’ during his performance
Maddie Rice, (pictured) who has played with the SNL band since 2020, maintained an unaltering look of ‘rage’ throughout Gillis’ ‘train wreck’ of a monologue, fans have alleged
Shane Gillis, (pictured in 2019) who became a huge online star after he was ousted from SNL over racist and homophobic remarks , stunned Saturday’s audience with an eight-minute monologue that joked about Down syndrome, sex toys, race and gays
Maddie Rice (pictured) began playing with the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2015 and has been part of the SNL band since 2020
Fans took to X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday commenting on Rice’s apparent frustration with the funnyman’s performance.
‘Man, this woman in the SNL band is staring daggers at Shane Gillis throughout his entire monologue. Just completely and thoroughly displeased,’ one viewer wrote.
Another tweeted: ‘Maddie Rice is awesome, man. Of course she’s smart enough to hate this unfunny a**.’
‘You can tell the female guitarist in the background hates Shane Gillis lmao,’ echoed another.
‘The only good thing about this monologue is Maddie Rice,’ a viewer replied.
One added: ‘Maddie Rice is awesome and reflected how I felt too.’
‘That was brilliant. And what made it extra-great is that red-haired guitarist in the back, Maddie Rice, never smiled once,’ another viewer wrote of Gillis’ performance. ‘I felt flop sweat coming on just looking at her.’
One viewer branded Rice as a ‘miserable person who hates her job,’ adding: ‘I actually feel bad for her.’
Rice grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and began playing guitar at the age of 13, according to reports. She trained with the School of Rock program.
It is understood that she attended Berklee College of Music before leaving after her sophomore year and moving to Los Angeles.
Rice began playing with the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2015, aged 22, and has been part of the SNL band since 2020.
Maddie Rice (pictured) reportedly grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and began playing guitar at the age of 13. It is understood that she attended Berklee College of Music before leaving after her sophomore year and moving to Los Angeles
Fans took to X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday commenting on Rice’s apparent frustration with the funnyman’s performance
In his opening monologue on Saturday, Gillis suggested he’d been ‘nicked’ by Down syndrome and using the word r*tarded.
He then went into a lengthy story about how his niece has Down Syndrome, while poking fun at himself for looking like he himself had it.
‘I don’t if you can tell by looking at me, but I do have family members with Down Syndrome. It almost got me! I dodged it, but it nicked me!’
He then said: ‘My niece has Down Syndrome and… I thought that was gonna get a bigger laugh. I thought we were allowed to have fun here!’
Before moving on, Gillis briefly addressed his firing, opening with a chastened: ‘Yeah, I’m here.’
‘Most of you probably have no idea who I am,’ he said. ‘I was actually fired from this show a while ago but… don’t look that up, please, if you don’t know who I am. Please don’t Google that. It’s fine, don’t even worry about it.’
He then joked about how he resembles ‘a high school football coach/9th grade sex education teacher’ before calling out his father, who was in the audience, saying that he’s a ‘volunteer junior high girls basketball coach.’
He also seemingly took aim at Packers fans in a sketch about electronic surveillance from apps like Facebook and Instagram.
Gillis portrayed a Packers fan who refused to believe that companies were using his phone conversations to send him targeted s – despite his device being filled with s for Packers-themed electronic butt plugs.
‘A group of friends warns against using modern technology, your computer is always listening to target ads in your email! Brent (Gillis) is not convinced,’ the sketch stated.
‘He checks his email, there’s an ad about buying a Green Bay Packers sex toy. Uh oh.’
NBC Wisconsin chose not to air the skit during Saturday’s broadcast, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported.
Shane Gillis, 36, had previously been fired from the sketch show after videos emerged of him using and racial and homophobic slurs during a podcast in 2019
In 2019 several clips surfaced in which the star used racist and homophobic slurs on numerous occasions – including on an episode of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast
Gillis is pictured with Donald Trump – although he insists he’s a Joe Biden supporter
Gillis, who released a Netflix special last year and co-hosts a podcast with over 100,000 subscribers on Patreon, often struggled with the New York audience’s reaction
‘Look, I don’t have any material that can be on TV,’ he cracked. ‘I’m trying my best. Also, this place is extremely well lit, I can see everyone not enjoying it.’
However, the comedian – who recently partnered with Bud Light as a spokesman – continued to plow through with material about young men and their relationships with their mom that touched on homosexuality.
‘My mom asked me: ‘When did we stop being best friends?’ And she’s right, we used to be best friends. You remember that, when you were a little boy and you loved your mom? Remember when you were gay?
He continued: ‘You remember when you were just a gay little boy? Every little boy is just their mom’s gay best friend, there’s zero difference.’
Gillis then joked about how he would gossip with his mother while listening to ‘her music,’ miming the opening to Shania Twain’s ‘Man, I feel Like a Woman.’
The punch of the joke was Gillis admitting that he’d stopped being his mother’s best friend when he began masturbating as a teenager.
‘It was the first time I whacked off…one nut, you’re like, when’s that b**ch gonna’ leave the house, I have so much business to attend to!’
‘I hope I can say those words on TV,’ he added.
‘You go over to their house, it’s like getting into the craziest Uber pool you’ve ever been in. It’s crazy. You’re like: “How did you guys meet?”‘
Gillis has since gone from strength to strength, his podcast growing into a huge success, booking a Netflix special and playing arenas opening for comic Bert Kresicher
Gillis recently partnered with Bud Light as a spokesman. In a post the the brands Instagram account they confirmed that Gillis, seen here, was now part of the team
Gillis shared images of himself being put to work inside the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St Louis, Missouri
The comic – who said in his special he was ‘rooting for’ Joe Biden despite becoming a hero of the ‘anti-woke’ movement – said he thinks it would be ‘a nice thing for the country’ if one day, her niece’s three brothers beat up a white kid for bullying her.
‘When my niece is probably in fifth, sixth grade at recess, some white kid’s out there like: ‘You’re not allowed to play with us, you’re r*tarded.’ And then three black kids come flying out of nowhere just start wailing on that cracker!’
He wrapped up by joking again about Down syndrome, noting that his family had started a coffee shop in his hometown where they employed people living with it.
‘It’s going exactly how you think it would go. It’s doing well, line around the corner every day. Not because there’s a ton of people going but service is…’ he trailed off.
While he didn’t take part in the show’s political cold open, he did do a sketch where he did his viral impression of President Trump, at one point facing off with SNL’s regular Trump mimic, James Austin Johnson, in a sketch mocking the president’s $400 golden shoes.