Comedian and podcaster Shane Gillis made a strong effort in his return to Studio 8H on Saturday night, but as he acknowledged through his nearly 10 minutes on stage, many of his jokes didn’t quite land with the live audience because much of his routine is not network TV-friendly.
Gillis, who hosts the wildly popular Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, returned to Saturday Night Live as its host five years after he was fired from the cast. In 2019, the 37-year-old was abruptly sacked when racist and homophobic jokes he made on his show surfaced.
His return to the long-running late-night series after losing one of the most sought-after gigs in comedy, started out rough, making the TV spot-s prescient. Gillis opened with a nod to his history at the show, telling the audience not to Google it — and said he probably shouldn’t be on the famous stage anyhow.
“I should be a high school football coach,” he joked. “Like, God molded me perfectly to be a high school football coach/ninth-grade sex education teacher.”
Gillis’ initial laughs faded quickly, though, as he pointed out his parents in the studio’s balcony, who were in New York to watch him host. He revealed that his father is, in fact, a coach himself in the comic’s Pennsylvania hometown. A volunteer assistant girls high school basketball coach, that is — a fact that he finds incredibly funny but the audience decidedly did not.
“I thought it was funny, alright,” he says to crickets. “You don’t think it’s funny to bring my dad here to make fun of him for being a girl’s high school basketball coach? I thought it was great. Never mind!”
Gillis then moved on to his mother, who he decided not to make fun of, (mercifully). Yet the gay jokes came quick, as he explained the moment that his close relationship with her as a boy came to an abrupt end the moment he discovered masturbation.
The comedian made his hosting debut on the sketch comedy show with musical guest 21 Savage.
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