Actor Dan Levy has publicly condemned Shane Gillis' recent "Saturday Night Live" monologue, labeling it as misogynistic and urging men to take a stand against such language.
Levy expressed his dismay in an Instagram video, stating he was "speechless" after watching Gillis' performance. He directly addressed the offensive remarks made by Gillis about women's gym attire, asserting, "Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists."
Gillis, who was hosting "SNL" for the third time, included jokes in his monologue that criticized women's activewear and also made a comparison between his hairstyle and Adolf Hitler's. He further referenced his family and the perceived binary of being "either gay or you're Hitler."
Levy argued that Gillis' monologue exemplifies a broader issue where complacency allows harmful attitudes towards women to persist. "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,’" Levy stated.
He emphasized that the issue extends beyond women, affecting society as a whole. "This is not a women’s issue, this is an everybody issue," Levy said. "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."
This is not the first time Gillis has faced controversy regarding "SNL." He was hired as a cast member in 2019 but was fired days later after past podcast clips surfaced containing racist and anti-LGBTQ+ remarks. "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels later told The Wall Street Journal that the decision to fire Gillis was made by NBC executives, although Michaels himself had believed Gillis had potential and was "the real thing."