Amala Ekpunobi
Amala Ekpunobi

Shane Gillis's SNL Monologue Enrages The Feminists

October 13, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Real Target of the Shane Gillis Outrage

When comedian Shane Gillis stepped onto the Saturday Night Live stage and joked that women now "dress like whores" at the gym—describing shorts whose wrinkles "go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole"—he set off a predictable cycle. Critics called the joke misogynistic, a contribution to rape culture, and a dangerous signal to young men. Comedian Dan Levy said Gillis should know better given the national conversation around sexual assault, arguing that "this is what turns young men into rapists."

But Amala Ekpunobi argues that the real story is not Gillis's joke itself. It is the machinery of outrage that seized on it—and what that machinery reveals about how public discourse now works.

The Joke and What It Actually Says

Gillis's monologue made two connected observations. First, many women at the gym now wear clothing that is functionally underwear—shorts that leave little to the imagination, tops that expose nearly everything. Second, some of those same women film themselves at the gym and then complain when men look at them. The joke's punchline is the contradiction: you cannot dress to be seen and then punish people for seeing.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:16) **Shane Gillis’s SNL Joke Sparks Feminist Outrage** - Amala introduces the controversy: Gillis joked about women dressing “like whores” at the gym, and feminists are outraged.
  • 2 (01:55) **Dan Levy’s Criticism and the “Performance of Outrage”** - Amala plays Dan Levy’s response, where he calls the joke misogynistic and says it contributes to a culture of sexual assault.
  • 3 (03:09) **The Absurdity of Calling for Men to “Stand Up” Against the Joke** - Amala mocks the idea that men need to publicly denounce the joke to prevent rape culture.
  • 4 (04:03) **The “Women Are Superior” Virtue Signal** - Amala reacts to the claim that men must defend women because “women are superior human beings to men.”
  • 5 (05:41) **The False Link to Rape Culture and the Cornell 7** - Amala addresses critics who tie the joke to the Cornell 7 gang rape case and the #MeToo movement.
  • 6 (06:56) **The Argument That the Joke “Turns Men Into Rapists”** - Amala presents and then dismantles the claim that Gillis’s joke directly contributes to creating rapists.
  • 7 (08:09) **Responses to the Joke: “You Think Like a Rapist”** - Amala reads online responses calling Gillis a rapist for his joke and criticizes the extreme rhetoric.

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Guests on this episode

Show Notes

Comedian Shane Gillis made a joke about gym girls on SNL, and now he’s getting viral backlash from celebrities and angry feminists. Let’s talk about it. 

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