Shane Gillis’ not-so-victorious return to ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 49

Saturday Night Live
Shane Gillis & 21 Savage
February 25, 2024

There is going to be (has been) a great deal of digital ink spilled on who Shane Gillis is, and why it’s both a big and weird deal that he hosted this week’s Saturday Night Live. The shortest answer I can give is that Gillis was hired to be on SNL in 2019 (the same year Bowen Yang joined, for a little bit of context). But a couple of weeks later, before Season 45 began, Gillis was fired after clips of his comedy emerged in which the material was deemed to be racist, sexist, and homophobic. This became the best thing for Gillis’s stand-up career, as you can imagine, as he became a poster boy for the anti-cancel culture crusaders. Gillis went on to have two popular Netflix specials. And, in his attempt to prove to someone, anyone, that he’s not a liberal shill, Lorne Michaels invited Gillis to return to Saturday Night Live as a host. (Vulture has a very good explainer on the whole situation, including a solid theory on why he was invited to host, if you need more.)

So was his debut on Saturday Night Live as disruptive and offensive as his fans wanted and his detractors feared? Well, no, not really, and frankly, that’s not a win for anyone. Gillis’s monologue was messy and bombed with the studio audience; and a majority of the sketches, playing on his reputation, seemed to dare the audience to be offended, even when they weren’t that offensive. The most offensive thing about them, in fact, was Gillis’ inclusion in them.

All in all, the episode felt like watching a 15-year-old getting messy drunk for the first time: he thinks he’s being naughty and dangerous, but the rest of us just see a mess that needs to be cleaned up.

Finally, the thing about Shane Gillis is that now that I’ve seen this episode, I genuinely understand why he was originally cast: he fills a certain role — he slides right into “middle-aged dad” and “beer-drinking sports guy” just fine; and, I have to admit, his impersonation of Former President Dipshit is quite good. The problem here is that once SNL fired him, the only way to have him be on the show was to have him host it. By hosting it he was able to show off his stand-up, something that he wouldn’t have been able to do as a cast member. And by featuring his stand-up, as they did last night, the show not-so-passively endorsed it. And that, as you will see below, was somewhat regrettable.

The cold open takes place at a Trump victory party where Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, Lindsay Graham, and James Risch are “celebrating” by talking about all the times Former President Cheez-it publicly humiliated them, and how wonderful he is for it. It’s a very clever political cold open that, for once, doesn’t rely on a caricature of Former President Half a Billion in Arrears in Legal Fees Alone, but instead focuses on how this party has completely surrendered to this man — by using only things he has actually said and done to them. It’s literally like this entire party (aside from the few principled ones who have since left, like Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, and Adam Kinzinger) have a humiliation fetish.

Grade: A

The monologue. First of all, let me just say that this is the first time I’ve seen Gillis’ comedy, and I tried very hard to come into all of this with an open mind. And I’ll be frank: I did not find him to be shocking — just incredibly immature and dishonest. Gillis is pulling something of a trick here: he sprinkles his monologue with offensive words like “gay” as a slur, “retarded” and “cracker,” and tells jokes about people with Down Syndrome, but he couches it all in self-deprecating humor, challenging the audience to be offended, while also presenting himself as the actual butt of the joke.

But as many others have pointed out, having a relative with Down Syndrome does not make it cool to use the word “retarded;” just like having a Black friend or relative does not make it OK for a white person to use the N-word. I understand that it was used in a certain context, but it feels like he created a context to give himself a reason to use the word. “They can’t get mad at me if I create imaginary villains who are using the word as a slur! They’re the ones saying it, not me! Even though they don’t actually exist except in my imagination!” It’s cheap. It’s a way to give himself and his audience permission to titter at saying an offensive word while absolving all of them from being the kinds of people who would laugh at the use of the word.

All that said, it’s important to note that this monologue bombed. The studio audience didn’t find the material particularly funny — because it wasn’t. And I suspect Gillis, who is used to a fawning audience who guffaws every time he slurs gay people or calls his mother a bitch, was knocked back on his heels a little by the fact that the SNL audience wasn’t there with him. He acknowledges several times mid-monologue that he expected the audience to laugh at certain jokes that fell flat, and this was his reaction as soon as the whole painful thing came to an end:

No, the most offensive thing related to this monologue was not the monologue itself, but the way his shitty fanboys couldn’t accept that not everyone was going to embrace his material, and went out of their way to have a tantrum because a single female band member had the audacity to not laugh at it. This is who they are:

It never ceases to amaze me how the people who are so fucking bunched up about “cancel culture” and others policing comedy get so angry when others don’t agree with what they consider funny.

Cool fandom you got there, Shane.

Grade: F

In this bit, a white family from Ohio on vacation attends a Jamaican church where they are confused by the cultural differences. The father, however, becomes so swept up by the service that he slips into a Jamaican patois.

Now … look. White folks doing a Jamaican patois is one of those things that is questionable at best, verbal Blackface at worst. Is there a universe in which the concept of this sketch might work? Maaaaaybe? (There’s an argument to be made that 30 Rock kinda pulled it off — but I can also understand why others would be offended by this.)

The problem is the baggage that Shane Gillis brings with him to the show: it makes the intention of this bit questionable. It feels like the show is daring us to be offended, so that it can laugh at us for being so sensitive.

Grade: C

The first ad spoof is for a gambling app that allows you to bet on when your friends with gambling problems will hit rock bottom. This is a very sharp bit that makes fun of the ghoulish companies that profit off of people’s weaknesses. It’s a shame that it didn’t air a little closer to the Super Bowl, frankly.

Grade: A-

In this perfectly mediocre bit, a pair of human resources managers hold a meeting to discuss rules about dating in the office place only to run into Gillis’ doofus character who wants to work around the rules with game show rules. It goes on entirely too long for little payoff.

Grade: B-

The premise of this bit is that a dopey loser in romance, his job, sports, and life in general gets a pair of the Trump sneakers which turn his life around. It’s not because the shoes make him actually better at all of those things, but instead, they give him the power to convince other people that he is better at all of those things when he actually isn’t.

Here’s the problem with this sketch — and no, it’s not the cheap shot at Biden at the end — it’s that it is funny. It shines a bright light on one of the most baffling things about the appeal of Former President Bullshitter: that anyone would think this huckster is as successful, powerful, and intelligent as he claims to be. And to Gillis’ credit, he does a great impersonation of the Former Adderall-Snorter-in-Chief.

No, my problem with the sketch is that the MAGAites, they literally don’t understand that this is mocking their spray-tanned God, not celebrating him.

 

Grade: A-

Apparently, there is a Fox game show called The Floor that is hosted by John Stamos and I guess it involves people identifying pictures of things? This seems like a very dumb premise for a game show.

In any event, in this spoof of it, Gillis is a contestant who refuses to identify any pictures of Black people, lest he identify them incorrectly. Like the Jamaican patois bit, this might have worked with a Tom Hanks or a Colin Jost — who is always being ribbed by his co-stars for being racist, which works because it is presumed he is not.

With someone like Gillis, it feels like the show is again bullying the audience: if you don’t laugh at this sketch about race featuring a comedian who has been criticized for being racist, then you’re a big baby snowflake.

BUT EVEN LEAVING ALL THAT ASIDE, it also doesn’t work as a sketch. It’s too long, it meanders and it ultimately falls flat.

Grade: C+

“Weekend Update” is all over the place this week. The “news’ bits done by Jost and Che are pretty solid — jokes about Former President Vengeance Is Mine’s win in South Carolina, the Alabama I.V.F. decision, and maybe my favorite, the one about the Trump Sneakers — but the two other bits, one featuring Marcello Hernandez as a frozen embryo and one with Bowne Yang as Truman Capote … they were full-on yikes.

Grade: A-

Here’s the frozen embryo bit. It’s an unfunny mess. And it’s a shame because this seems like it would be a great set-up for a sketch. (Forgive the Twitter link — for some reason, it’s not posted on YouTube at the time I posted this.)

Grade: D+

And here’s Truman Capote. I know what they were going for: I’ve been watching Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, too. Truman Capote, despite pretending to be women’s best gay friend, was actually a hideous misogynist. How ironic! Bowen Yang’s Capote is quite good, but it becomes a little tedious and repetitive and goes on entirely too long.

Grade: C+

 

At his high school reunion, a former bully is shocked to learn that the former target of his bullying, Forest Gump, has become the most successful member of their class.

To be fair to the show, I often find at this post-“Weekend Update” point in the show that I am grumpy and just want the damn thing to be over already. As a result, I might not be as good a judge of the sketches.

At the same time, I have to ask … is it 1994? Did we somehow lose 30 entire years? Just … why?

Grade: B-

In this bit, Gillis shills for a sex doll company, “Fugliana,” which makes ugly sex dolls for ugly guys.

Here’s a prime example of Gillis’ brand of comedy: you’re not allowed to be mad at this sketch for being misogynistic and a list of things that the writers hate about women, because it’s really about how the dudes are ugly. You better laugh or you’re an uptight Femanazi.

LOOKING AT YOU, BAND LADY.

Grade: D

In the final sketch of the night, Gillis’ character is outed to his friends as being the owner of a Green Bay Packers butt plug thanks to the way Alexa personalizes your ads based on the things you say around it. It is for sure final sketch material.

Grade: C

For some reason, SNL cut for time this Liberty Mutual spoof that, by my estimation, was the best bit of the night — extra points for not including anything racist, sexist, or homophobic.

 

 

 

Final Grade: C.


Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.

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