Comedian Shane Gillis unintentionally swore in the middle of the Saturday, October 10, episode of Saturday Night Live.
Gillis, 38, participated in the “Green Eggs & Ham” sketch with cast members Andrew Dismukes and Mikey Day on Sunday, all portraying Dr. Seuss-inspired characters.
“My dad said he doesn’t like green eggs and ham, drop it [and] walk away,” Gillis said, per social media footage. “Bro, it’s a non-starter! He told me he doesn’t f***ing — geez — like ‘em.”
Gillis burst into laughter, also raising his arm as if to offer a silent apology to the live audience. Day, 46, was still in character and quipped about his costar’s “bad word” flub. The NBC and Peacock broadcast, however, quickly censored Gillis’ remarks. (The Federal Communications Commission has a list of seven words that can’t be uttered on TV: s***, piss, f***, c***, c***sucker, motherf***er and t***.)
While Gillis continued with the Seussian sketch as written, he later issued an apology for his accidental curse.
“Sorry about earlier,” he noted during the goodnights segment before the credits rolled. “Thank you very much. [I] had a good night.”
It’s not presently known whether Gillis, who hosted SNL for the third time on Saturday, and the variety show will receive a fine for his swearing. Former cast member Ego Nwodim, for her part, allegedly wasn’t fined last year after the audience yelled out “s***” during her “Weekend Update” standup.
“I don’t believe we got fined. I asked Lorne [Michaels, the showrunner] a couple of weeks ago and I was like, ‘Did anything happen? Did we get fined?’” Nwodim, 38, told Gold Derby in a May 2025 interview. “He was like, ‘I don’t think so.’ And so, because he was semi-confident, I, too, am semi-confident that we didn’t get fined.”
She added at the time, “The money didn’t come out of my bank account, so that’s why I haven’t confirmed.”
Earlier that month, Nwodim debuted her fictional “Miss Eggy” persona and pretended to lament about dating.
“Cory Booker out here with his filibuster — shoot, I’ve had my fill of busters ’cause these men ain’t what?” Nwodim said at the time, holding out her mic toward the audience. They yelled back, “S***t,” before the actress joked that Michaels, 81, would likely be mad at the unintentional swearing.
While Michaels never publicly addressed the expletive skit, Nwodim was proud of the more wholesome elements of the routine.
“I thought it would be fun if I tried to channel that persona. When the news was about the White House Correspondents Dinner not having a comedian, I was like, ‘OK, what if I was the comedian?’” she recalled to Gold Derby. “It just became such a joy to pitch and write and perform that piece, [and] we were having fun.”
Saturday Night Live airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET.
