Saturday Night Live UK used its Weekend Update desk on Saturday to hit back at Shane Gillis, whose opening monologue as host of the American original drew sharp criticism a week earlier. Co-host Ania Magliano closed the Oct. 17 segment with two jabs. After a bit about a German ride operator who handed women shorts to guard against upskirting, she held up a still of Gillis from his monologue. The shorts, she said, would protect women from one danger while exposing them to something worse. The studio audience roared.
Magliano then turned to Gillis’ accidental f-bomb during a sketch on the previous week’s show. “Oh Shane, you’re not allowed to say that,” she said, before delivering an insult, “you stupid fing c.” The line also mocked American broadcast rules, which the British show does not have to follow.
Her target was Gillis’ Oct. 10 monologue on NBC’s “SNL.” He told viewers he had skipped the gym for a long time and was startled that “women just dress like whores now.” He then described the fit of neon workout shorts in crude terms and warned the audience not to look. NBC’s standards bar the profanity he used in the sketch, and Gillis apologized for it.
The monologue set off objections across the entertainment industry. Actor Martha Plimpton called it idiotic and said he deserved a scolding from his mother. Former “SNL” cast member Ego Nwodim posted a gym photo of herself captioned “Whore Reporting for Duty.” Dan Levy said he was speechless that the material aired on live national television and urged more men to speak up. Viewers on X split. Some praised the episode’s cold open and panned the monologue, and others asked why Gillis keeps landing hosting slots.
Gillis hosted “SNL” in 2024 and 2025, a status that once looked out of reach. NBC dropped him from the show’s featured cast in 2019, days after announcing his hiring, when videos surfaced of him mocking Asian accents and using ethnic and gay slurs. Lorne Michaels’ office said at the time that Gillis would not join the program. The American “SNL” was off the air this past weekend, so the British broadcast went unanswered by the show’s own cast.
