Dan Levy has condemned Shane Gillis’s Saturday Night Live monologue, accusing the comedian of using a misogynistic tone when discussing women who wear short shorts at the gym.
Gillis, who hosted the programme this weekend, joked during his opening monologue that he had not been going to the gym because “women just dress like w****s now?”
He went on to describe the shorts as “neon” and “artificial bait-coloured”, adding: “The wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the b***hole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look.”
Levy, known for Schitt’s Creek, criticised the remarks in a social media post on Sunday. He said women who wear short shorts at the gym are not “w*****s” and argued that “it makes the men calling them w*****s misogynists”.
He added that he had seen more male nipples than women “flaunting their bodies” at the gym, and said Gillis’s monologue had left him “speechless”. Levy also expressed shock that the material had been broadcast on national television.
Levy called on more men to oppose misogyny, saying “it’s complacency that has created the environment in which women are sexually assaulted”. He also argued that when men objectify women in the media, “other men see them as objects and treat them as objects”.
A source connected with Saturday Night Live said Gillis had written the monologue and his own jokes, adding that this was typical for comedians. Another source said he had performed the joke about women in short shorts before.
There has been no indication of whether the programme will take action over the monologue. Gillis did, however, apologise at the end of the show after swearing during a sketch.
