Shane Gillis' biggest controversies: 'SNL' backlash, 'racist' roast jokes & more

Shane Gillis did his monologue on SNL, and I thought, for the most part, it's pretty funny. He just kind of goes at it. Got to respect that he takes chances up there. The debate over Shane Gillis' SNL monologue is raging on. That was radio star Bobby Bones on his 25 Whistles podcast defending the comedian. But former Saturday Night Live scene stealer Ego Owusu may be having the last laugh. She trolled Gillis with a gym selfie, saying she's, ahem, reporting for duty. Her next Instagram story joked, getting my 30 grams of protein in after hoeing. Spelled the French way, because she's classy. It was one of many spicy clapbacks coming for Gillis after his opening monologue on October 10th took aim at female gym goers who wear skimpy shorts. Also, I haven't been to the gym in so long, I didn't know women just dress like whores now. Those neon, they're like the only, they're like artificial bait colored. The wrinkles, the wrinkles go like around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. Backlash was swift. Country singer Maren Morris said, leave my gym short wedgie out of it and flipped him the bird. She also reposted Schitt's Creek creator Dan Levy's takedown. Women wearing short shorts to the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There's a difference there. Elsewhere on Gillis' third time hosting SNL, he accidentally dropped an uncensored F-bomb during a Dr. Seuss-inspired sketch. But he may like green eggs and ham. Bro, it's a non-starter. He told me, he said he doesn't cheese like them. The gaffe was censored in later versions of the show. However, SNL may skirt free from any FCC fines, seeing as it airs well past the 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. window, which is regulated by the feds. During his goodbyes, Gillis apologized, saying sorry about earlier. And die-hard SNL fanatics will remember when cast member Jenny Slate accidentally dropped an F-bomb herself way back in 2009. But back to Shane. This is far from his first controversy. In fact, earlier this year, his roast jokes rubbed many people the wrong way. Here's what Page Six reported back in May. It's just everything we know, that they're racist, that they're bigots, that they're sexist you know that they think they're like invincible did you feel i mean did you like they were saying nothing at all like no i mean it was ick it was gross there's no i don't find those jokes to be funny jokes about lynching black people or like it lynching is not a joke it's not that's worse than rape chelsea handler gave withering comments about fellow comedians shane gillis and tony hinchcliffe's polarizing jokes following Netflix's The Roast of Kevin Hart, which aired earlier this month. During the latest episode of Dion Cole's Funny Knowing You podcast, Handler labeled Gillis and Hinchcliffe bigots and specifically called out a joke that roastmaster Gillis made poking fun at Hart's height. He said Hart was, quote, so short they're going to have to lynch him from a bonsai tree. Handler also revealed that Gillis' ex-girlfriends were blowing up her DMs ahead of the roast with dirt on him. Essentially that he believes himself to be uncancellable, Gillis was pulled from the Saturday Night Live cast in 2019 ahead of the premiere over racist anti-Asian jokes that surfaced, but then returned to host the show twice. Since his SNL firing, Gillis landed his own Netflix show, Tires. Season 3 is coming in August. For Hinchcliffe's part, in 2021 he was dropped by his agents after this stand-up set in Austin, Texas went viral where he made racist jokes aimed at the host, comedian Peng Deng. — How about one more time for the filthy little f-----g j---- that was just up there? All you f-----g race trainers are pooping and hollering. I'm back there watching you puking in a f-----g bucket. Oh, we making a gunpowder! Oh, you want extra soy sauce? Oh, you borrowed money from us and you guys are just beating it up, you f-----g j----! — At the Kevin Hart roast, Hinchcliffe got heat for making a joke about Cheryl Underwood's husband's suicide, and one about George Floyd. Meanwhile, Gillis raised eyebrows during the special by labeling Handler a Zionist and alleging she went to dinner at Jeffrey Epstein's house in 2010. In response, Handler called out Gillis' anti-Asian reputation. Shane has been accused of being anti-Asian, which is ironic considering he has the complexion and physique of a steamed dumpling. The 51-year-old veteran comic is now ripping Gillis and Hinchcliffe's jokes about her at the roast as just plain lazy. Like, what were they going to say about me? They couldn't say anything other than that I'm a whore or my age. I think that was the other thing that they went in. And you're like, well, OK, those are jokes. That's not clever writing. And I knew they would be lazy because they do that for a living.