Oct. 15, 2026

Backlash to Shane Gillis’ SNL Monologue

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac focuses on criticism of Shane Gillis’ SNL monologue amid public discussion of a Cornell 2024 sexual assault case, citing Vogue’s Emma Specter, Jessica Valenti’s comments, a Today Show segment with Jenna Bush Hager calling the language derogatory, and Cecily Strong’s Instagram response referencing Cornell and New York law. The show notes Bobby Bones’ deleted TikTok calling one line funny and his subsequent apology, plus Saturday Night Network host John Schneider’s apology for initially missing the “whores” remark. It then contrasts commentary from National Review, The Hollywood Reporter, and Newsweek on timing, audience fit, and proportion of reaction. The episode highlights Jack Asadorian Jr.’s YouTube special “Mexican Armenian,” reports UK prosecutors’ opening statements in Russell Brand’s trial (which he denies), and notes Palin canceled a book tour after breaking his hip.

00:00 Adult Content Warning
00:10 Vogue Critique Context
01:12 Today Show Reaction
03:21 Cecily Strong Responds
03:46 Bobby Bones Apology
05:48 SNN Podcast Reassessment
08:19 National Review Take
09:54 Hollywood Reporter Analysis
11:51 Newsweek Nuanced View
13:19 Break and New Special
13:24 Jack Asadorian Story
14:26 Russell Brand Trial Update

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WEBVTT

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There's a lot of stuff for adults on today's podcast.

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We're a little more serious than usual, so if for

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some reason you share this program with your children, don't today. Hi,

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I'm Johnny Mac with your daily comedy news. For Vogue,

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Emma Spector writes, There's never a great time for lazy

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misogynist humor, but the details of Cornell's 2024 sexual assault

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case being litigated in public adds a particular sting to

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Shane Gillis' words. The thought of having to muster a

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laugh at some half-baked reinvention of the wanton woman stereotype

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when online so many survivors of sexual assault are sharing

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their stories of being dehumanized and debased by men just

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feels like a bridge too far right now. Writer Jessica

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Valenti drew a connection between the monologue and the Cornell

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allegations in an Instagram video. She argues that Shane's remarks

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should not be dismissed as a simply poorly timed joke.

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She said, Shane Gillis knows there's a major national conversation

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happening right now about sexual assault. He's very well aware

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of that fact. He's very well aware that tens of

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thousands of women, hundreds of thousands, maybe more, are sharing

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their stories of being raped or talking about how painful

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it was when the good men in their life didn't

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do anything or blame them. When you demean and denigrate

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and dehumanize women and say that they're not real human beings,

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that they're just whores, their clothes are bait. What do

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you think rape culture is? On the Today Show, Jenna

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Bush Hager did a long segment about it. Now, if

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you're watching this on YouTube and the clip isn't there,

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NBC likes to copyright strike things. That's what happened on

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Monday's episode that they took out the Shane clips. So

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if this skips ahead here, that is why you can

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always listen to the clip on the audio podcast. Here's

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Jenna Bush Hager. So whatever if.

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That's what they want to wear Godspeed, but I think

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when you say the word or I think it feels.

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Most derogatory almost yeah, it just feels.

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Kind of like I wouldn't want my kids to.

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Yeah, it feels mean yeah right and so and that

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is the energy that I think made people upset and

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there are obviously other reasons but for me I think

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that's what it is like I walk around without shirts

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on at the gym all the time and they like

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are proud of their body so if the guy can

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be proud of his body let the girl be proud

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of her.

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And also who is he to comment on women's bodies

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for that and I think like we become this culture.

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Shane Gillis among many so many where online creates I

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mean he's obviously on Saturday Night Live but this perpetuates

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what is happening in our culture where people are commenting

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on women's looks like ad nauseum.

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And it makes it it's almost made it okay yeah.

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And it's not okay it's not okay and and I

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think like if we want to be good role models

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for our children like stop talking about the way women

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look period like and I think you know, there's many

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of Women have said like what this is enough. And

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so I think like I honestly and especially in like

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the time we're living in Like I wouldn't want my

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son to hear me that if my husband talked like

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that about somebody have.

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A problem First of all, you wouldn't he would never

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married if he did.

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Yeah, I would be disgusted by it, you know, and

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I think like when we're having conversations And here around,

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you know, the horrible things that are happening in the

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world and how to talk to our kids about it.

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Maybe the first place to start is for some of

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these people to start acting like role models. Yeah. To

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stop using words that are perpetuate, you know, disgusting.

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Yeah.

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Disgusting. Like I was like, I think this word we

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can perpetuate.

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Cecily Strong, SNL's longest-running female cast member, posted an Instagram

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story in it. She wrote, On my way to Pilates

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and my newly slutty ass orange shoes and rainbow socks.

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Might sell sex on the way, not sure. That was

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posted alongside a picture of her gym attire. She adds, P.S.,

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there was a gang rape at Cornell that maybe won't

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count because the New York law says if you consent

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to drinking, you consent to all that happens to you.

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Bobby Bones, who hosts a national radio show, had posted

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a TikTok video, now deleted. We are told in the

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original TikTok video, Bobby Bones shared that he found Shane

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Gillis' comments funny. Country Now says in the original video,

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Bones said, quote, he said it looks like the color

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of an artificial bait, artificial lure, and I thought that

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was so funny. According to Country Now's version of the TikTok,

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Bones had said, people who don't get the joke are

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probably not from the South or have probably never been fishing.

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Bobby Bones has now issued an apology. Here it is.

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All right, I'm not too good to come on here

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and say that I think I probably missed the mark

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a little bit. and maybe a lot of it, but

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I literally just saw the joke that Shane Gillis made

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about the, um, athletic wear the same color as a

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fishing lure and thought that joke itself was funny. And

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it has blown up into something. I wasn't planning to

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come and say anything. I was just going to let

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it pass. But, um, even my wife was like, Hey,

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I think that's probably interpreted a little worse than you think.

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So I am definitely not too good to come on

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here and be like, hand up. That's on me. I

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saw the one joke. I I really was just going

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to set it out and let it pass, but I

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don't want to let it pass because that's not.

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Who I am.

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So I am sorry about all of this blowing up

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like this because it really was not my intention. I

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actually posted the video before it even became controversial because

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I just saw the fishing joke and thought, oh, that's

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a funny analogy, but it is not. And that's on me.

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So apologies. And I saw different people covering it now.

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And so the last thing I want to be is

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something that looks like an advocate for something that I

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am not so um hand up on me my fault

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I should have watched the whole thing should have uh

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thought before I posted so I'd also like to thank

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my wife for kind of telling me hey you should

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really pay attention to what you're saying so that's on

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me um my fault I learned a valuable lesson here

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and I definitely will not do that again. So sorry, guys.

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I think all of us, all we can do every

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day is try and be a better person than you

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were yesterday. And opinions on things do evolve. On a

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similar note, I was walking the dog on Tuesday afternoon.

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It was like 80 degrees in October in New Jersey,

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which is awesome for walking the dog. And I listened

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to two episodes of SNN, the Saturday Night Network podcast.

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The first was the initial reaction to the Shane Gillis episode.

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In the rapid reaction, they did not dwell on the

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joke in question at all and were more focused on

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how dead the room was for Shane Gillis. Then when

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they did their recap show and had a minute to

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think about things, they had a different opinion. I'm going

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to play a long clip here. I want to be

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fair to host John Schneider as he sets up everything here.

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But here's Saturday Night Network.

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Tonight, though. We're going to talk about what everyone's been

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talking about, which is this monologue here from his third

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time hosting. There was a lot of apprehension from the

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SNL community that they decided to bring him back because

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his monologues, truth be told, have been the thing that

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I think most people have been discussing from his last

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two times hosting. There's been a lot of things that

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he said in his monologues that people don't agree with.

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But I think that the biggest focus, at least for

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what I see from critics, is just simply that he

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plays to a room that's extremely quiet. And that's something

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that we felt was important to point out. And I

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will admit that was my focus coming into Saturday night

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when we started our coverage was, all right, is that

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going to be better? Like, are we going to see

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more laughter from the audience?

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And that was my thought, right?

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When he maybe pointed, I think, to Dan Soder in

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the audience and said, like his buddies up there, like

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maybe he tried to improve by filling the audience with

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his buddies. And I was really so focused on that,

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you know, now doing this for so long, that I

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completely missed exactly what he said in the monologue to

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the point where I got on here on Saturday night,

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and I didn't address it directly. And that's on me.

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So for any of our listeners that feel like I

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didn't do a good job in discussing what he said

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on Saturday, and we're going to talk about it, I

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apologize for that. That's on me. I try and do

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my best here. Obviously, we go live immediately after the show.

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But that's no excuse because saying women are whores is

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not funny. I don't like to judge SNL as being

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funny or not. But it's not funny in any context.

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And that should have been something that we should have

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just started the show with on Saturday. So I'm starting

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that with here. I'm starting that here right now to

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say that and put that out there. Saying all that,

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we're going to talk about what we heard.

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In the National Review, Daniel Forster writes under the headline,

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The Shane Gillis joke is undercooked, not a capital crime.

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Daniel writes, My impressions are more mixed overall, but I

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find a lot of his stuff funny. Anyway, we got

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to the bottom of the contretemps about what the Atlantic

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solemnly dubbed Gillis' quote, troubled, unquote, Saturday Night Live monologue.

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I'm with my co-belligerents in the culture war on the

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ridiculousness of the overreaction on everything it says about who

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thinks they own comedy generally and the institution of SNL

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in particular. The only thing I'd add is that this

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probably wouldn't have happened without the Cornell news cycle and

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the segment of the left that feels its power is

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set to once again wax. But the main thing I

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want to say is that the women at the gym

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bit was undercooked. Not very interesting. This isn't a mortal sin.

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It's just a failure of tradecraft. This is surprising because

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Gillis is part of a cadre of comedians who, despite

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presenting as gonzo, even reckless slayers of cultural pieties, are

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actually very careful and very self-aware technicians. Gillis understands exactly

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what he has to do to walk the audience to

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the place he needs them to be to laugh at

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his punchline. I will quote my friend anonymously. Skipping ahead

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in Daniel Forster's piece for the National Review. He says,

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So yeah, the reaction is bonkers, but I'll bet that.

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No defense is softened up, but more relevant, there are

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no tags, no button, barely an observation. It feels like

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the start of a brainstorm, not something you put on

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national TV. So yeah, the reaction is bonkers, but I'll

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bet that if Gillis had workshopped a bit for a

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few more weeks before taking it on stage, there wouldn't

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have been a reaction at all. In The Hollywood Reporter,

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Tony Maglio writes, I'll leave it to individual opinions as

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to whether or not Shane Gillis' joke is offensive and

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to what degree, but one thing is for sure, it

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was not built for the SNL audience in 2026. Tony

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Wright's SNL attracts liberal talent and a similar audience. It

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films in New York City, and its main target is

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Donald Trump. The show's writers and cast members are generally

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a diverse group of Gen Zers that came up in improv, sketch,

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and stand-up comedy. They don't listen to Joe Rogan, and

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they don't drink the Bud Light Gillis endorses. Studio 8H

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is not the place for gay jokes and jokes against women.

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At the very least, if you try them, they'd better

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be really strong. Gillis's were not. Comedy's about pushing boundaries,

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and Gillis is really good at that. His substantial Guinness

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Book-sized audience is anti-woke, which is actually a pretty logical,

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though rare, position for comedians. The same material would probably

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kill the Gillis crowd, though those probably do not have

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a ton of crossover with your average SNL viewer. It

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wasn't just the wrong place for the joke. It was

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decidedly the wrong time. Women wearing what some people consider

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especially revealing clothing in the gym is in no way

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a new observation inside or outside the comedy community. The

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fake bait line is a good one, but really not

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good enough to justify the bit. Gillis's filming tag makes

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the conceit a bit more timely. Self-recording in public gyms

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really is pervasive and invasive, and Gillis ultimately makes himself

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the butt of the joke, but the material is still misplaced.

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Skipping ahead to the Hollywood Reporter writes, SNL creator and

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executive producer Lorne Michaels seems to court controversial hosts with purpose.

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Trump infamously hosted SNL during his 2016 president campaign, which

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did not sit well with much of the cast and

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writers the prior season, two years before being canceled for

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masturbating in front of female comics without their consent. Host

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Louis C.K. closed his monologue by joking about how much

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child molesters must love their crimes. In 2022, Dave Chappelle

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poked fun at Kanye West's anti-Semitic rants of the time

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while himself referencing Jewish power in Hollywood. The Chappelle monologue

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is no longer on SNL's official YouTube channel, but Louis

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and Shane's are in full. Interesting. In Newsweek, Anna Ramanen writes,

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Anna writes, when Shane Gillis joked on Saturday Night Live

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that women wearing tiny shorts at the gym look like whores,

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I laughed, perhaps because I indeed wear shorts at the

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gym and I indeed seem to have retained my sense

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of humor. My disposition changed when Gillis complained about men

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not being allowed to look at said women. I understood

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the suggestion that women invite attention through their clothing and

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then unfairly object to it, but the way he phrased

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it felt uglier than the original joke. When Dan Levy

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responded by calling their marks misogynistic, I virtually stood up

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and applauded. I was laying in bed, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram,

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which made the gesture somewhat less impressive. Both reactions were genuine,

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and impressively, some might say, I was able to hold

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on to two seemingly opposing truths at once. that women

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wear shorts at the gym and film TikTok videos of

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themselves more than they used to, say a decade ago,

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and that the way Gillis phrased and continued his joke

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was inappropriate. Apparently, though, that dual position is becoming a

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difficult one to occupy in America. Skipping ahead, she says,

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we've become remarkably careless with words while simultaneously treating every

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word as potentially catastrophic. Skipping ahead again, I can still

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laugh at Gillis, agree with Levy, and recognize that neither

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reaction cancels the other. Gillis could have exercised more restraint

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in his language, levied more proportion in his response, and

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the rest of us, perhaps a little more judgment in

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deciding how much weight to give either, because if we

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can no longer distinguish a comedian's ugly joke from genuine danger,

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while still recognizing that careless language has consequences, how can

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we expect to have a sensible conversation about anything? I

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suppose that's exactly where we are in America right now,

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and I think this is the right time to take

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the break. Out today, Jack Asadorian Jr. 's special. The

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LA Times said Jack didn't know what to expect when

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he booked shows in Armenia. People in his life told

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him the culture there was very old-fashioned compared to the

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material in his act. They also told him they wouldn't

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accept him because he wasn't fully Armenian and he didn't

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speak the language. He recalls people telling him, they're not

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going to like you and you're going to get arrested.

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Instead of calling it off, he booked his own shows

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using social media, sold out four of the dates. A

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month later, he returned, sold out more shows and extended

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his tour to Beirut. Growing up, Jack didn't even know

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that side of his heritage. At home, his grandmother and

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mother would speak to him in Spanish. As far as

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he knew, his heritage was Mexican. He said, I was

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just kind of bouncing around just a little bit of everything.

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It was really hard to find out where I came from,

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who I was. And then as I got older, I

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kind of understood more and more. And it was just

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a very different experience. You know, like we'll be speaking

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Spanish one day and English one day, Armenian the next.

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His special Mexican-Armenian is out on YouTube today in it.

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Asadorian explores how he navigated his multicultural upbringing and how

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that experience has shaped him as an adult raising multicultural children.

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In the UK, prosecutors said of Russell Brand on Wednesday

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that Russell was a ruthless predator who raped or abused

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six women despite their protestations to satisfy his voracious sexual appetite.

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Russell Brand is on trial facing three counts of rape,

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three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent

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assault relating to six women from 1999 to 2009. Russell

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denies all the accusations. As he arrived in court, he said,

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Today I feel blessed. I feel, of course, concerned, but

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hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for

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everybody involved. The prosecutor said he was ruthless. He was calculating.

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He was manipulative. And the prosecution say he was a

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sexual predator. If you'd like to keep up on that trial,

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we are covering it on Daily Crime and Justice. I

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will cover it here and there on this show as warranted.

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Michael Palin has canceled his book tour. He took a

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fall and broke a hip. He called it a comedy

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fall with no audience there to see it. He had

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been scheduled to visit venues across the UK to promote

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his new travel book in the Philippines. He says that

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tour and any other events over the next few months

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have now been cancelled. He said, my accident was quite unsensational,

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a slip in the family bathroom where I've walked for

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58 years. I fell heavily on my left side, resulting

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in three fractured ribs and my pelvic fracture. Hope he's

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doing better. And that is your comedy news for today.

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I'll see you tomorrow.