‘SNL’ Legend Dana Carvey Gives His Verdict on Shane Gillis ‘Whores’ Joke

Saturday Night Live legend Dana Carvey defended Shane Gillis on the latest episode of his Fly on the Wall podcast, saying he didn’t understand all the “kerfuffle” about the comedian’s recent monologue.

Gillis hosted the long-running NBC sketch show this past Saturday (October 17) and sparked backlash for calling women “whores” in a joke about the gym. “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?” he said.

He continued, “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.”

Reacting to the backlash on his podcast, which he cohosts with David Spade, Carvey said, “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. When you say jokes, you’re not literally saying ‘women are whores,’ you are literally joking.”

“Isn’t that kind of the idea? No?” he added. “Did I just get canceled?”

Carvey, who was an SNL cast member from 1986 to 1993, said the joke probably “destroyed” in the “10 comedy clubs [Gillis] played that week,” but noted that SNL was maybe “not the right place” for it. “Most of the audience is young women, so I think maybe that was not… it is very highly dressed up young women is the majority of the audience at SNL.”

Gillis faced criticism for the joke from the likes of SNL alum Ego Nwodim and Schitt’s Creek creator-star Dan Levy. He was also called out on SNL UK‘s latest Weekend Update in a story about a ride operator at Munich Oktoberfest offering free cycling shorts to female riders.

“Wearing the gym shorts will protect women from being up-skirted, but it does make them vulnerable to something much worse,” comedian Ania Magliano said as a photo of Gillis appeared on screen. She also poked fun at Gillis getting in trouble for dropping an F-bomb during his SNL appearance, something the SNL UK cast doesn’t have to worry about.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Saturday Night Live UK (@snluk)

Related

'SNL' Shane Gillis Episode Ratings Revealed: Was He a Hit or Miss?

“Last week on SNL, comedian Shane Gillis also caused controversy by dropping the F-bomb. Oh Shane, you’re not allowed to say that, you stupid f***ing c**t,” Magliano said completely uncensored.

On the Fly on the Wall podcast, Carvey and Spade thought the backlash was over-the-top. “It’s almost comical that there’s people that say, ‘Oh, don’t make fun of Onlyfans. Don’t make fun of strippers. These are sex workers, they need to be respected.’ And everyone hates Sydney Sweeney,” Spade said.

“And it’s like, what? Which one is it?” he continued. “Let’s all decide what we hate and don’t. How about we just relax? Sometimes people just need to mind their biz. We don’t need a comment on everything.”