Schitt’s Creek co-creator and star Dan Levy is criticizing comedian Shane Gillis’ recent SNL monologue after he said women who go to the gym dress like “whores.”
Gillis, who hosted SNL over the weekend, was fired from the sketch comedy show in 2019, five days after being cast as a regular when clips of him using racial slurs during a podcast interview resurfaced.
The stand-up comic, who has hosted SNL several times since, said Saturday: “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?”
Levy called out Gillis’ comments in an Instagram reel, saying, “Women wearing short shorts to the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists.”
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“By the way, I’ve seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off,” he continued, adding that he was “speechless” that a remark like that could make it onto live national television.
“More men need to be standing up in opposition to it because it’s complacency that has created the environment with which women are sexually assaulted and it’s a ‘conversation’ as opposed to a ‘crime.’”
Women are “not objects,” he said, “they are superior human beings to men.”
“I am sorry if this gets me in trouble with the internet…but f**k.”
The Emmy Award-winning actor and writer, who hosted SNL in 2021, said this was an “everybody” issue because the more men speak about women this way in the media, the more men will treat them like “objects.”
The video, which has been viewed more than two million times, received praise from high-profile individuals including Viola Davis and Elizabeth Banks, who both commented in support of Levy’s message.
“Nailed it,” Banks wrote.
Gillis also talked about his “friend” podcaster and UFC commentator Joe Rogan’s private gym, which he said he prefers because he can work out there with no one else around.
Rogan is a controversial figure in the podcast space. He has been known to promote unproven treatments for COVID-19 and for repeatedly using racial slurs while hosting.
SNL, which is currently in its 52nd season, has said goodbye to a couple of titular cast members in the past year, including fan favourite Bowen Yang, who ended his eight-season run last Christmas, and Chloe Fineman, whose final episode was in May.
Barrie, Ont., native Veronika Slowikowska joined the SNL cast in 2025 as a featured player; she is the first Canadian cast member since the mid-90s. The show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, is from Toronto.
Other notable Canadian comedians, including Martin Short and Mike Myers, have also appeared as regular cast members.
In March, Myers returned for a surprise appearance where he showcased his impersonation of tech billionaire Elon Musk.
During the closing credits, he was spotted wearing a black T-shirt that read “Canada is not for sale,” with a Canadian flag in the middle, beside Shane Gillis, who was hosting the episode, and musical guest Tate McRae.
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