Dana Carvey and David Spade defend Shane Gillis after ‘SNL’ uproar: ‘Just a joke’

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Shane Gillis is getting backup from two former Saturday Night Live stars after a joke in his recent monologue sparked backlash.

Gillis, 38, came under fire after he referred to female gymgoers as “whores” during his monologue.

“I try to go to a public gym. Going to a public gym as a fat guy, especially in New York, is a nightmare. It’s just the hottest gay guys you’ve ever seen … Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?” Gillis said during his opener.

“Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it]. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. You’ve seen the shorts? They’re those neon, like, artificial bait-coloured [shorts], and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look, because they are filming. I’m in the background of 10 TikToks right now.”

Speaking on their Fly on the Wall podcast with David Spade, Dana Carvey said he “didn’t understand the kerfuffle.”

“To me, I just saw it as what we call — I’ll just say it — a joke,” he said. “Like, when you say jokes, you’re not literally saying women are whores. You are literally joking. Isn’t that kind of the idea? No? Did I just get cancelled? Wasn’t it a joke?”

Carvey suggested that Gillis’ opener probably had audiences in stitches when he tried it out in the “10 [comedy] clubs he played that week.” But the SNL vet acknowledged that national television was “not the right place” for his joke.

Spade said that Gillis likely knew his bit was going to make waves.

“It got some laughs. I think he knows that one’s going to be a button-pusher, but he doesn’t care,” Spade said. “Sometimes, people just need to mind their [business]. We don’t need to comment on everything.”

Spade also suggested that if Gillis’ quips had generated more laughter, they would have gotten “a pass.”

“If something totally bombs, then they get in a lot of trouble,” he said. “That’s like anything … It ultimately helps him.”

In the past, Carvey has apologized for SNL jokes that didn’t land, including a 1992 skit with Sharon Stone which aimed to get laughs by having the actress remove her clothes.

In the comedic sketch, titled Airport Security Check, Carvey played an Indian security guard who instructed Stone to take off pieces of clothing after she continually beeped going through a full-body scanner. 

During her appearance on the Fly on the Wall podcast, Carvey called Stone “such a good sport” for going along with the bit and said if they tried to air the routine today, “We would be literally arrested now.”

‘Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores’

Gillis’ joke was met with intense criticism, with Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy and former SNL cast members Ego Nwodim and Cecily Strong lambasting the comedian on social media.

“Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists,” Levy said in a self-shot video posted to Instagram.

He also said that he was “speechless that something like that can exist on live national television.”

Strong shared a photo to her Instagram Stories of her legs and feet in gym clothes.

“On my way to Pilates in my new slutty ass orange shoes and rainbow socks,” Strong captioned her snap. “Might sell sex on the way not sure.”

Nwodim posted a gym selfie to her Instagram story with the caption, “Whore reporting for duty.”

Elsewhere, during a stop on the Today show, SNL Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che said he couldn’t “criticize anybody for swinging and missing”

“That’s comedy. It’s like, you think it’s funny and then some people don’t,” he replied when asked about Gillis’ monologue.

Meanwhile, singer Maren Morris blasted Gillis on Instagram, flashing her middle finger and writing, “me being a wh0re at the gym.”

“Leave my gym short wedgie out of it,” she captioned her post.

Gillis’ ex-girlfriend Grace Brassel also piled on with a social media post of her own, sharing an Instagram video of herself doing a gym routine and writing atop the video, “Full Body Workout for Hoes.”

“Super quick full body workout for my women at the gym!” she captioned her post.

In addition to the gym video, Brassel addressed her breakup with the stand-up star in a separate post in which she said she was harassed by his fans.

“Last year I was in a relationship that fully stripped me of who I am,” Brassel wrote. “I’ve been so terrified to even talk about what I went through, especially after relentless bullying from his fanbase (for no reason).”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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