Shane Gillis seems to have a supporter in Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce amid the fallout from his recent — and controversial — Saturday Night Live monologue.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end liked a video of the monologue on Instagram, which featured a joke disparaging women at the gym.
“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t realize women just dressed like whores now,” Gillis, 38, said at the start of the Saturday, October 10 episode. “Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it]. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. You’ve seen the shorts? They’re those neon, like, artificial bait-colored [shorts], and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look because they are filming. I’m in the background of about 10 TikToks right now.”
A source close to Kelce, 37, downplayed the social media interaction, telling Page Six that “he’s always been a massive fan of the show and he was supporting a friend.” Us has reached out to Kelce for comment.
The comedian and the pro athlete have publicly supported each other before. In June, Gillis appeared at Kelce’s annual Tight End University, hosted alongside fellow tight ends George Kittle and Greg Olsen.
While Kelce has not commented publicly about the controversial joke, others have spoken out since the Saturday, October 10, episode. Schitt’s Creek alum Dan Levy blasted Gillis in a scathing Instagram video the following day.
“Women wearing short shorts to the gym does not make them whores,” Levy, 43, said on Sunday, October 11. “It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There’s a difference there.”
He added that he has “seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.”
Levy continued, “But I’m speechless that something like that can exist on live national television. And to be perfectly honest, 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.”
“This is not a women’s issue,” he concluded. “This is an everybody issue, 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 f***.”
Gillis’ monologue wasn’t the only controversial moment in the most recent SNL episode. The comedian also accidentally swore during a sketch parodying Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs & Ham,” unceremoniously saying “f***” before awkwardly replying with an, “Oh, geeze.”
Gillis burst out laughing at the time, holding his arm up as a way of silently apologizing to the crowd. He also apologized at the end of the show.
“Sorry about earlier,” he said during the goodnights segment. “Thank you very much. [I] had a good night.”
