Dan Levy did not hold back. The Schitt’s Creek star and co-creator took to Instagram on Sunday, October 11, 2026, to call out comedian Shane Gillis for a joke he made during the Saturday Night Live monologue just one night earlier. The joke in question? Gillis told the Studio 8H audience that women who wear short shorts to the gym “dress like whores.”
Levy, who hosted SNL himself back in 2021, posted a video reel captioned simply “Ffs.” In it, he made his position crystal clear: the problem is not what women wear. The problem is the men who judge them for it.
His response quickly drew support from major names across entertainment, including Elizabeth Banks, Maren Morris, Ego Nwodim, Jewel, Kristin Chenoweth, and Flavor Flav. What started as one joke has now become a full-blown conversation about comedy, accountability, and the culture that lets certain remarks reach live television.
What Shane Gillis Actually Said on SNL
Shane Gillis, 38, hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time on Saturday, October 10, 2026. The episode featured Rosalía as the musical guest. During his opening monologue, Gillis touched on his weight, his dislike of public gyms, and then turned his attention to women’s workout clothes.
“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?” Gillis said. “Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it]. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. 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.”
The studio audience reacted with audible groans and gasps, according to multiple reports. The SNL band, typically quick to laugh along, reportedly sat stone-faced. Gillis also joked about his receding hairline looking like “an Adolf Hitler haircut” and referred to his sisters using derogatory language. He later dropped an F-bomb during a Dr. Seuss-inspired sketch and apologized for that specific moment at the end of the show, but made no mention of the monologue.
This is not Gillis’s first brush with controversy. He was hired as an SNL cast member in September 2019 and fired just five days later after old podcast clips featuring racist and homophobic remarks resurfaced. He rebuilt his career through stand-up and the Netflix series Tires, eventually returning to host SNL in 2024 and again in 2025.
Dan Levy’s Message: It Is Not About Shorts, It Is About Respect
Dan Levy posted his response on Instagram on Sunday, October 11. The Emmy-winning actor and writer did not mention Gillis by name, but there was no mistaking what he was talking about.
“Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores,” Levy said in the video. “It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There’s a difference there.”
He continued with a personal observation that landed hard with viewers.
“By the way, I’ve seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.”
Levy then shifted to a broader point about the responsibility of men.
“I’m speechless that something like that can exist on live national television. 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 and it’s a ‘conversation’ as opposed to a ‘crime.’”
He closed his message with a direct call to action.
“Men need to be defending women more. This is not a women’s issue, this is an everybody issue. Because the more that men objectify women in the media, the more that other men see them as objects and treat them as objects. They are not objects. They are superior human beings to men, OK? And I’m sorry if this gets me in trouble with the internet, but fuck.”
Ego Nwodim and Maren Morris Respond with Their Own Messages
Ego Nwodim, who spent six seasons as an SNL cast member, responded on Monday, October 12. The 38-year-old actress and comedian posted a mirror selfie from the gym to her Instagram Stories with a caption that said it all: “whore reporting for duty.”
Hours later, she shared a photo of her post-workout meal with the caption, “Getting my 30 grams of protein after heauxing.”
Maren Morris took a similar approach. The Grammy-winning singer posted a video on Monday, October 12, in which she smiles at the camera before giving it the middle finger. Text on the video read, “me being a wh0re at the gym.” She captioned the post, “leave my gym short wedgie out of it.” The video was set to her 2025 song “be a bitch.”
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Celebrities Rally Behind Levy in the Comments
Levy’s Instagram post drew more than 18,000 comments, and many came from well-known figures in entertainment.
Elizabeth Banks wrote, “Nailed it.” Hilarie Burton commented, “Thank you!!!!” Kristin Chenoweth posted a “100” emoji, while Lisa Loeb added a fire emoji alongside the words “Thank you.” Jewel also thanked Levy for speaking up.
Maggie Baird, the mother of Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, shared Levy’s video to her own Instagram Story with a lengthy caption.
“I literally gasped when [Shane Gillis] said this on [SNL]. I felt it physically. I come from the sketch comedy world and am not squeamish around comedy, but how can men and comedy writers still think this is funny! It’s actually dangerous for women to promote this bullsh–.”
Flavor Flav shared an article about Levy’s response on X with the message, “Important allyship.” Barrett Wilbert Weed commented, “I love you, Dan.”
The Timing and the Bigger Conversation
The backlash to Gillis’s joke arrived during heightened public attention on a 2024 alleged gang r**e at an Ivy League fraternity house involving students known as the Cornell 7. That case has sparked widespread discussion about consent, campus culture, and how institutions handle such allegations. Several social media users pointed out that Gillis’s joke about women’s bodies aired while that conversation was still very much in the public eye.
One longtime SNL viewer wrote on X, “This is such offensive garbage. Promoting r**e culture and misogyny. I’ve been watching since I was 9 years old, but I’m not watching this sh–.” Another user asked, “Did a monologue where he calls women whores genuinely get approved??? This is in poor taste.”
Saturday Night Live has not issued a public statement about the monologue. Representatives for Gillis have also not commented.
Dan Levy won four Emmy Awards for Schitt’s Creek in 2020, sweeping the comedy categories in a historic night. He has since worked on multiple film and television projects, including the 2025 documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery. His decision to speak out on this issue has placed him at the center of a conversation that extends far beyond one late-night joke.
Also Read: Will Big Mistakes Season 2 Happen? Creator Dan Levy Has Already Planned the Entire Story
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