'More men need to be standing up': Dan Levy calls out Shane Gillis SNL joke about women's clothing

'More men need to be standing up': Dan Levy calls out Shane Gillis SNL joke about women's clothing

Gillis, who was fired from SNL in 2019 shortly after being brought on, is no stranger to controversy

Warning: This article contains offensive language.

Dan Levy isn't laughing at Shane Gillis's Saturday Night Live monologue — and he's not happy with men who find it funny, either.

In a Sunday Instagram video, Levy didn't mention Gillis by name, but called out the reference to women who wear short shorts to the gym as "whores," which Gillis made the night before in an introductory segment while hosting the long-running sketch comedy show.

"I haven't been to the gym in so long, I didn't know women just dress like whores now," Gillis said. "I'm sorry, there's no other way to describe [it]."

Gillis critiqued the neon short-shorts that he says he sees women wear at the gym, comparing the attire to the "artificial bait" of a fishing lure.

"And don't look; you're not allowed to look," Gillis said.

Shane Gillis, shown hosting the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles in 2025, drew criticism over the weekend for a joke included in his SNL monologue. (Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press)

In response, Levy took to Instagram to voice his anger with the comments, saying he was "speechless" a joke of that nature would be broadcast on live television.

"Women wearing short shorts at the gym doesn't make them whores," Levy, star of Schitt's Creek who hosted SNL himself in 2021, said in an Instagram video. "It makes the men calling them whores misogynists."

"And to be perfectly honest, more men need to be standing up in opposition to it because it's complacency that has created the environment [in] which women are sexually assaulted," Levy went on.

The Canadian-born comedian added that the objectification of women in the media by men will lead other men to "treat them like objects," and he said that everyone should be standing up for women in order to prevent their mistreatment.

The backlash to Gillis's comments comes amid a wave of outrage against the men who've become known as the Cornell 7, who are accused of a 2024 gang rape at an Ivy League frat house, and support for their accuser known only as Jane Doe.

The case has ignited scrutiny over the school's handling of the situation as well as conversations about consent and the culture that would have allowed the situation to happen in the first place.

Plenty of SNL fans also criticized the joke and those on the show who approved it, especially given the ongoing conversation around the alleged rape at Cornell.

What to know about Cornell's alleged frat house gang-rape case and the 'Cornell 7'

"Who on earth approved the "wh*res" joke?! Read the room," one commenter said on the video of Gillis's monologue posted to the SNL Instagram account.

"Shane is very aware of the current moment with Jane Doe. And he chose that joke anyways," another wrote.

Others commented under Gillis's most recent, unrelated Instagram post, saying the monologue was misogynistic and enabled rape culture. Some fans came to his defence, saying the comedian should be able to make the jokes.

Students march at UBC in support of alleged Cornell University gang-rape victim

Gillis is no stranger to controversy, including on the SNL stage. In 2019, the comedian was hired and then quickly dropped as a cast member on the show after podcast clips of Gillis making homophobic jokes and using an Asian slur circulated.

He's since hosted the show on three occasions, however — in 2024, 2025 and again last Saturday. During his first SNL appearance, Gillis joked about a family member of his with Down syndrome, and he has been criticized for his use of homophobic language on podcasts.

The comments about women's appearances at the gym weren't the only ones to raise eyebrows this Saturday, either. He also said he'd "balded directly into an Adolf Hitler haircut" that he struggles to adjust without looking "gay."

"You're either gay or you're Hitler. Isn't that where we're at as a country," he quipped.

In a later sketch parodying a Dr. Seuss story, Gillis accidentally dropped the F-word — a no-go on the live program, which let the word go out to viewers in some time zones uncensored. Gillis apologized for cursing twice, once at the end of the sketch and during the show's goodbye.

Abby Hughes is a writer with CBC News based in Toronto. Originally from Orillia, Ont., she studied journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University. She covers news from the worlds of business, entertainment, health, science and education, and her favourite stories focus on the real people in those areas — the customers, fans, patients, citizens and students. You can reach her with story ideas at abby.hughes@cbc.ca.