SNL Host Shane Gillis Bombs With Monologue Jokes About Trump and Dating Black Men — Watch Video
It’s not often that we see an Saturday Night Live host apologize for their jokes midway through a monologue, but Shane Gillis managed that rare feat during an awkward performance to open Saturday’s episode.
The stand-up comedian — who was slated to be an SNL cast member in 2019 before being fired when past racist and homophobic jokes of his came to light — returned this week for his second stint as host, and he opened his monologue by bemoaning the fact that we’ll never see Donald Trump in a presidential debate again. (“Even if you didn’t like him, that was fun. We had fun, right?”) He also said he missed President Biden and the way that, after giving a speech, “his face would go back to being dead.”
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After a middling response to that joke, Gillis took notice: “Look, I get it. You guys are pretty liberal here.” He said he understood being liberal, because “it’s powerful. Too powerful. It’s like the Sith,” and when the audience went silent, he laughed, adding: “Alright, now I’m gonna lose you even more.” He went on to tell the crowd about something that “most white guys I know” do that “is racist”: When a white guy starts dating a girl, “they always ask them eventually… Have you ever had sex with a Black guy before?” The audience audibly groaned after the reveal, with Gillis admitting “it’s a shameful thing to ask”… but he’s asked it himself before.
Gillis recounted a time when he asked a girl if she ever had sex with a Black guy, and when she responded, “Ew, no,” he replied: “Jesus Christ, what are you, racist?” After more scattered laughs, Gillis giggled to himself and moved on, adding: “Now that I’ve got your attention…” He wrapped up with an extended riff on his love of boring historical documentaries, including Ken Burns’ The Civil War, which he said are “kryptonite to women. If you put that on, they will fall asleep immediately. You know, they’re yapping a little, you go, ‘How about some Ken Burns?’ That’s a little Cosby tip for you, actually. Who needs roofies?”
Watch Gillis’ monologue in full above to judge for yourself, and give this week’s SNL a grade in our poll.
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