Saturday Night Live Recap: Shane Gillis Drops a Bomb

Saturday Night Live
Shane Gillis
Season 51 Episode 3
Editor’s Rating ★★★
Previous Next
Previous Episode
Next Episode

Shane Gillis is a mess of contradictions. On one hand, he’s been mired in controversy since the moment he entered the public eye (if you missed it, after being cast on Saturday Night Live in 2019, he was booted from the show after racist comments surfaced). He then hosted the show twice, sparking a conversation over what message, exactly, SNL and Lorne Michaels were trying to send over his casting and firing. And the biggest headline from his third time hosting the show last night was the f-bomb he dropped during a Dr. Seuss sketch (more on that below). This marked the first instance of the swear word accidentally making an appearance during a live sketch since Sam Rockwell in 2018 (not counting Sabrina Carpenter’s use of the word during a musical performance last year).

All of this controversy would logically make one think that Gillis must be, at the very least, an unpredictable (or at the best, exciting) comedian to watch on live television. But the weird contradiction at the heart of Gillis is that he isn’t particularly dynamic in actuality. He’s not an untalented stand-up, but he’s not all that exciting to watch, either. Despite all the buzz, he seems to me to be a perfectly middle-of-the-road comic who has found outsize success that he doesn’t quite know what to do with. His whole deal is a kind of low-energy, self-deprecating everyman schtick that sits extremely at odds with the newsy controversies he always seems to find himself stuck in. 

Perhaps in the hands of a smarter comedian, this contradiction could in itself be a compelling source of comedy to mine. But Gillis doesn’t seem interested in doing that at all. He also is uninterested in addressing the inherent tension that makes his “aw shucks” routine fall a little flat these days: he is a wealthy and successful celebrity now. In the same breath that he calls himself a “gas station egg,” he is name-dropping Theo Von and Joe Rogan, casually dropping that he spends a lot of time in the latter’s sauna. Again, this could be an interesting paradox to dig into for comedy, but Gillis simply doesn’t seem to want to, sticking to the same self-denigrating fat jokes he’s always trotted out. And judging by the way he chose to wrap up his own monologue (“Hey, that was the monologue”), maybe he also senses that he’s phoning it in. 

Last night’s show, however, was a mostly solid one. The night opened with Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth hosting a press conference on board the USS Abraham Lincoln. I’ve made my thoughts on Jost as Hegseth very clear in the past, but I’ve now come to accept that the show (and its audience) seems to love this particular impression, so I’m choosing at this point not to yuck anyone’s yum. James Austin Johnson also stops by with an excellent, mumbly RFK Jr. What I love about Johnson’s impressions is the particular attention he pays to how it feels to listen to certain famous people talk — as opposed to a completely photorealistic impression of a celebrity, which is the sort of thing we often see on SNL that is technically impressive, but can sometimes feel boring. When he descends into unintelligible grunting at the end of his appearance as RFK Jr. (just like when he starts free-associating as Trump), it just feels so spiritually true to that character.

Thank you for allowing me that small tangent on the talents of James Austin Johnson. Without further ado, let’s get to the episode highlights. 

Cop Talk Show

The first sketch of the episode utilized Gillis’ vibe perfectly. The host played an alcoholic cop hosting a talk show, harassing his guests and violating their civil liberties along with his partner, Mikey Day. Maybe the key to making Gillis interesting in sketches is making him evil? Kam Patterson’s character showing up to the talk show and immediately leaving also made me laugh. A solid, closely-observed sketch to start the night. 

Green Eggs & Ham

This sketch likely wouldn’t have made even a small dent in the online discourse over the episode had it gone as planned. It stars Gillis as the indignant son of Mikey Day’s Dr. Seuss character (who is being pestered by Andrew Dismukes’ Sam-I-Am about not liking green eggs and ham). It’s a perfectly inoffensive setup for a sketch, and Gillis almost immediately drops the f-bomb, which hilariously means that the comedians have no choice but to soldier on through the rest of the bit. I actually think the sketch works despite (or perhaps because of?) this early interruption, and Day makes superb hay from the unexpected f-bomb, referencing it at the end of the sketch to huge applause. And Gillis’ sad, sheepish interjection right before the sketch wraps up (“Sorry about earlier”) made the whole thing funnier to me. 

Father-Daughter Song

A very weird and funny pre-tape that is elevated by its genuinely strange heightening. The premise is just that a father (Gillis) is excited about his daughter (Sarah Sherman) moving out because he gets to fill her room with all of his dad stuff (pinball machine, popcorn machine, etc.) But the sketch delightfully zigs where you think it’s going to zag, and ends with Gillis making out with Ms. Pac-Man. The sketch is narrated by a wedding band (James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, Tommy Brennan) who kind of kill it with the vocals as well. 

Sneakers

Another sketch that made good use of Gillis by making him evil. Playing a man who gets a little too excited at the Johnson’s pitch of shoes that don’t make a lot of noise, Gillis’ deliveries here are probably his high point of the night. His deadpan line reading of “The murderous cow stays asleep” was a highlight. 

Weekend Update: Trump Doesn’t Win Nobel Peace Prize

Weekend Update this week started off strong with a well-written few minutes on the current goings-on of the Trump administration. Jost fakes out the audience by teasing a “tragic story involving President Trump” before revealing that he’s going to talk about the President’s loss of the Nobel Peace Prize. His casual tossing away of the line “no, not that” was very funny. Is Jost growing on me after nearly a decade? It’s possible. 

Cut for Time

• Newcomer Grace Reiter had a very good show last night, appearing in an Update desk bit and starring in the ten-to-one sketch as the horny ex-wife of Gillis’ character. She’s definitely carving out a space of her own in her freshman season. 

• I appreciated the weird Weekend Update joke where Jost talks about eating newborn babies. You could hear audibly disgusted audience members saying “What?” in reaction. The offbeat, cruel cadence of the bit reminded me of classic Update Norm Macdonald.

• Rosalia made a very brief cameo in the hospice sketch and killed it. She should have been utilized more!