Dan Levy slams Shane Gillis’ SNL ‘whores’ joke and urges men to ‘stand up’
Daniel Levy at the 78th Emmy Awards held at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/Deadline via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
Dan Levy has said he is “speechless” that Saturday Night Live aired Shane Gillis calling women “whores” in a monologue about the gym.
In an Instagram Reel posted on Sunday night (11 October), the 43-year-old Schitt’s Creek co-creator and actor responded to Gillis’ opening remarks from the Saturday, 10 October episode, urging men to challenge misogyny when they see it.
Gillis, 38, told the live audience in the monologue: “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?”
Levy responded: “Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists,” adding: “By the way, I’ve seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.”
He also criticised the fact it aired at all, saying: “But I’m speechless that something like that can exist on live national television.”
What did Dan Levy say about Shane Gillis’ SNL monologue?
Levy argued that the stakes went beyond a single “joke”, saying: “Because it’s complacency that has created the environment in which women are sexually assaulted and it’s a ‘conversation’ as opposed to a ‘crime.’”
He added that “more men need to be standing up in opposition to it”, and said: “This is not a women’s issue, this is an everybody issue.”
Levy hosted SNL himself in 2021. He is a Canadian actor, writer and producer who co-created and starred in Schitt’s Creek, the warm-hearted sitcom that became a global streaming-era comedy phenomenon.
Why is Shane Gillis’ SNL history controversial?
Gillis was hired as a featured player on SNL in 2019 and fired days later after podcast clips resurfaced in which he made racist and homophobic comments.
When Gillis returned to host in February 2024, he delivered a divisive opening monologue that included jokes about relatives with Down syndrome, as we covered at the time. Netflix later announced it would stream a six-part sitcom series starring Gillis, Tires, almost five years after he was dropped from the show.
