Shane Gillis Blamed Gen Z for Him Bombing His 'SNL' Monologue

You don’t tell people you are performing for that you lost them, nor do you start making excuses if you do. The great and powerful Conan O’Brien talks about that all the time. He’s mentioned that, during his years as a talk-show host, any time a guest would turn to the audience and say something to the effect of “this isn’t going well” or “I lost you guys,” it would signal the interview’s death! Even if you think things aren’t going well, you lead with confidence. You don’t start blaming the audience.

That doesn’t strictly apply to late-night talk-show guests, either. I was part of the NYC stand-up scene for a bit, and while that didn’t end up working out, I’ve seen a lot of bad stand-up. More often than not, when a comedian starts blaming the crowd for their poor performance, it makes things a million times worse. I’ve seen comedians whose whole act consists of intermittently telling the audience, “I guess that was too much for you guys” or “everyone here is so sensitive tonight.” It’s bad form!

If your jokes don’t work, tell different jokes. If crowds aren’t laughing, try different crowds. Not every comedian has to be able to play every room now. The best ones can, but not everybody is the best. Some people find themselves with an increased amount of popularity because they have found their niche. They do well, and that’s great, but when moving their niche mainstream, it doesn’t go as well. Case in point, Shane Gillis bombing during his most recent SNL monologue.

Gillis was hired for SNL in 2019, but the decision was reversed after it was revealed he had a history of making bigoted and homophobic jokes. The man blew up after that and has been invited back to host twice. The second time, he performed a monologue about Trump wanting to buy Greenland and how white guys want to know if their girlfriends have slept with a Black guy. Surprise: it did not go over well! He then pivoted to a joke about the Civil War, and by that point, the crowd was pretty checked out. He commits the cardinal sin and jokes about losing the crowd, even when he hasn’t fully lost them (yet). It was bad.

To be even slightly fair, of course, a (likely) mostly liberal NYC crowd wasn’t going to go for Gillis’ schtick. But he should know that! He should pivot. You don’t have to change who you are, just tell more jokes that may work where you are. But Gillis doesn’t take the blame for any of it. As he explained on a recent episode of Smartless, it’s the young people’s fault he didn’t do well. “I did a bunch of Ken Burns material in my SNL monologue, and everyone was kind of like, ‘What the f*** is he talking about?’” Gillis told the hosts. “Every time my monologue doesn’t go great on SNL — I’m 0 for 2 on those things.”

Gillis went on to note that it was the age of the crowd not wanting his Civil War jokes, that did him in. “Tate McRae was the musical guest, so the audience was like 20-year-old chicks just in the front,” Gillis explained, “and I’m up there talking about Shelby Foote and Ken Burns and the Civil War. They had no idea — just some ogre walked out on the stage and started talking about Shelby Foote.” Again, blaming the crowd as if he didn’t know Tate McRae would be the host. If he truly thought that would make a difference, he should have adjusted when he saw the note cards with his and her names posted on social media like everyone else!

It’s also worth noting that Gillis didn’t just make niche jokes about the Civil War. Baked in there was a date rape joke where he quipped the (Ken Burns) specials could be played if women “yap a little,” to knock them out, continuing with “that’s a little Cosby tip for you. Who needs roofies when we have Ken Burns Presents the History of the Buffalo on PBS?” Oh, weird, that didn’t work well?! Must be because of a stupidly specific and unrelated reason. Guess everybody there was just too sensitive or too young. But it was not Shane Gillis’ fault, you guys (it was).