Stand-up comedian Shane Gillis hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) for the third time in his career. However, his opening monologue, which focused on weight loss, working out, and hair loss, drew an extremely muted response from the audience and ended in an awkward silence after a joke mentioning Adolf Hitler.
The 38-year-old comedian took the stage in a black T-shirt and pants and began his monologue by talking about how difficult it is for an overweight person to go to a public gym in New York City. During the performance, Gillis also weighed in on modern women's workout clothes and brightly colored neon shorts, saying that women at the gym are “dressed like whores” and filming videos for TikTok, prompting groans of disapproval from the audience.
After joking about his sisters teasing him as a child, Gillis moved on to the subject of his receding hairline. He complained that his bald spots had begun to resemble the hairstyle of Nazi Germany's leader.
“I'll tell you what really bothers me: I've gone bald to the point where I have Adolf Hitler's haircut,” Gillis said during the monologue. “I perform a lot, so my bangs keep falling forward, and there's no way to fix them without looking exactly like Hitler. I'm not going to brush them to the side—that's gay. So those are your options: you're either gay or you're Hitler. Isn't that where we are as a country?”
The audience responded with only a few scattered laughs, after which the comedian's performance abruptly ended.
Context: Gillis's complicated history with SNL
This episode marked another chapter in Gillis's complicated relationship with the legendary late-night show. In 2019, Gillis was invited to join the cast of the legendary late-night show Saturday Night Live. However, just five days after the announcement, he was fired after old podcast recordings resurfaced in which he used offensive racist and homophobic remarks.
The firing did not ruin his career; on the contrary, it rallied a loyal fan base around him. In 2021, he independently released the stand-up special Shane Gillis: Live in Austin on YouTube, where it garnered tens of millions of views.
Later, SNL producer and creator Lorne Michaels admitted The Wall Street Journal that the decision to fire him was made under pressure from NBC executives. Michaels later attempted to mend fences with Gillis: he offered him the role of Donald Trump in Season 50 (the comedian declined) and invited him to host the show three times. Although sketches featuring Gillis (such as “CouplaBeers”) are popular, his stand-up monologues before SNL's live audience have repeatedly received a lukewarm response.
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