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Dana Carvey defended Shane Gillis' SNL monologue
Former Saturday Night Live cast member Dana Carvey has weighed in on the recent Shane Gillis “SNL” controversy, and the former Wayne’s World co-star doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.
Comedian Shane Gillis hosted Saturday Night Live on October 10, marking his third time as host of the long-running sketch comedy. His monologue included a bit about working out at a New York gym as a larger guy in which he said that women “dress like whores now.”
“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?” Gillis said. “You’ve seen the shorts? They’re those neon, like, artificial bait-colored [shorts], and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look.”
Former SNL star Dana Carvey said he didn’t understand the backlash to Shane Gillis’ Saturday Night Live monologue joke about women’s gym attire
Gillis’ joke prompted backlash on social media and a week of discourse in the aftermath. Carvey, however, came to the defense of Gillis, arguing that jokes aren’t meant to be taken literally.
“I just didn’t understand the kerfuffle only because, to me, I just saw it as what we call — I’ll just say it — a joke,” Carvey said on the podcast he hosts with David Sapde.
“Like, when you say jokes, you’re not literally saying women are whores. You are literally joking. Isn’t that kind of the idea? No? Did I just get canceled?”
Carvey was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1993 (Seasons 12 through 18), making his debut on October 11, 1986, and returning frequently as a guest and cameo contributor, with famous characters including The Church Lady, Garth Algar, Hans of ‘Hans and Franz’, George H.W. Bush, and more.