Shane Gillis defended by SNL icons David Spade and Dana Carvey amid 'misogynistic' joke outrage: 'How about we just relax?'

Saturday Night Live legends David Spade and Dana Carvey have defended Shane Gillis over his controversial monologue joke on the series. 

While guest-hosting a recent episode of the NBC sketch show, Gillis, 38, performed a bit saying that female gymgoers 'just dress like w****s now.'

He added that 'you're not allowed to look' at them ''cause they are filming,' quipping: 'I’m in the background of like 10 TikToks right now.'

As an explosive backlash erupted against Gillis, Spade, 62, and Carvey, 71, offered an opposing view on their joint podcast Fly on the Wall.

Carvey, who starred on Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1993, argued that Gillis' wisecrack was not meant to be taken 'literally' and expressed disquiet at those who leap from finding a joke unfunny to believing it 'should not be allowed to be said.'

Spade, who was in the cast of Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1996, indicated his exasperation at the public outrage and suggested that 'we just relax.'

A representative for Gillis declined the Daily Mail's request for comment. 

'Well, I just didn’t understand the kerfuffle, only ’cause to me, I just saw it as what we call – I’ll just say it – a joke,' Carvey remarked.

'Like he didn’t – when you say jokes, you’re not literally saying women are w****s. You are literally joking. Isn’t that kind of the idea? No? Did I just get canceled?'

Spade's assistant Heather Santoro, who serves as the executive producer of the podcast, countered: 'The joke has to be actually funny. If you're gonna call a woman a w****, it's gotta be funny, and it wasn't.'

Carvey theorized that Gillis' bit 'destroyed' in the '10 comedy clubs he played that week,' but acknowledged Saturday Night Live was 'not the right place.'

He added that 'young, very highly dressed up young women is the majority of the audience at SNL, so all right, Heather, I agree with you.'

However Spade chided Carvey not to 'cave that fast,' having noted that Gillis 'got some laughs' over his jokes about women at the gym, 'but, of course, I think he knows that one's gonna be a button-pusher, but he doesn't care.' 

Spade took aim at 'people that say: "Oh, don’t make fun of OnlyFans. Don’t make fun of strippers. These are sex workers. They need to be respected." And then everyone hates Sydney Sweeney. And it's like: "Which one is it?" You know what I mean? Let's all decide what we hate and don't, and how about we just relax?' 

Carvey chimed in: 'It's the idea of, there's two things: "Joke is funny." "Eh, joke is not funny." "Joke offends me." "Joke should not be allowed to be said."'

Meanwhile, Spade observed that 'at SNL, if something kills it gets a pass. If something totally bombs, then they get in a lot of trouble.'

When Carvey asked if the bit had landed well at dress rehearsal, Spade said: 'Oh, I don't know. I don't think Shane has talked about it. I think he's like Chappelle where he just does it and he walks away and then everyone fights over it. It actually helps him ultimately, so they shouldn't even talk about it.' 

Gillis' latest appearance on Saturday Night Live earned the most live viewers of the three times he has hosted the show, with an average of 4.4 million people watching the episode, according to Nielsen ratings licensed by the outlet Late Nighter.

In his monologue, Gillis mocked himself for 'going to the public gym as a fat guy' surrounded by 'the hottest gay guys you've ever seen,' before saying: 'Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like w****s now.'

He continued with a smile: 'Look, I'm sorry, there's no other way to describe - have you seen it? I've seen it. The shorts? Have you seen the shorts?'

Gillis earned laughs describing the activewear as 'neon' and 'artificial bait-colored' with wrinkles that 'go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole.'

He quipped: '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 like 10 TikToks right now.'

As a social media furor erupted over the monologue, Gillis was vociferously denounced in an Instagram video by Schitt's Creek star Dan Levy. 

'Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them w****s. It makes the men calling them w****s misogynists. There’s a difference there,' said Levy.

'By the way, I've seen more men's nipples at the gym than I've ever seen women showing their bodies off,' observed the son of SCTV icon Eugene Levy. 

'But I'm speechless that something like that can exist on live national television. And to be perfectly honest, more men need to be standing up in opposition to this, because it's complacency that has created the environment with which women are sexually assaulted and it's a "conversation" as opposed to a crime.'

NFL star Travis Kelce was then drawn into the scandal when he liked the video of Gillis' monologue on Saturday Night Live's official Instagram page.

He quickly drew howls of condemnation on X, where one user branded him 'a d*****bag frat bro' and another called him a 'disgusting man.' 

Even his new wife Taylor Swift was unable to avoid the blowback entirely, with one observer demanding on Reddit: 'Taylor, is this your king?? Come get your man girl.'

Swift and Kelce exchanged vows in July at a 1,000-guest ceremony at Madison Square Garden officiated by Adam Sandler, whose 2025 movie Happy Gilmore 2 had featured a shirtless cameo by the football heartthrob. 

This June, Gillis was a celebrity guest at Kelce's annual Tight End University training camp, as seen in a video for the sports comedy page JokeWRLD. 

Kelce was shown greeting Gillis with a warm hug, after voiceover narration referred to the comedian and the football player as 'friends.'

Gillis also proudly introduced Kelce to his father Phil, who shook the Kansas City Chiefs player's hand and said: 'It's an honor to meet you.' 

Saturday Night Live star Michael Che found himself awkwardly maneuvering when faced with questions about Gillis' monologue on the Today show.

He did remark in the interview that 'I can't criticize anybody for swinging and missing 'cause I've definitely swung and missed too. I try to keep that heat off of it.'  

Gillis made headlines in 2019 when he was hired to join the cast of Saturday Night Live, only to be fired over resurfaced podcast clips of his politically incorrect comic bits, including one in which he used the ethnic slur 'ch**k.' 

Inasmuch as Gillis was hired at the same time as Bowen Yang, the first Saturday Night Live cast member of Asian descent, the jokes pulled even further focus.

Gillis issued a statement noting he is a 'comedian who pushes boundaries,' while offering 'to apologize to anyone who's actually offended by anything I've said.'

He was defended by legendary Saturday Night Live veteran Norm Macdonald, who himself had been fired from the show over his OJ Simpson material.

In 1997, an NBC executive who was friends with Simpson jettisoned Macdonald for repeatedly making fun of the ex-football player over his double murder trial. 

Macdonald tweeted his sympathies to Gillis, writing that the younger comic's firing was 'Unacceptable' and telling him: 'Please DM me, pal, when you have a moment.' 

In the ensuing years, Gillis rose back to showbiz success, and by 2023 he released a stand-up special that made the Netflix Top 10 in five countries.