In its third time hosting Saturday evening liveShane Gillis is not advocating a triumphant return to casting.
In this weekend’s episode, which also featured musical guest Rosalía, the comedian delivered several on-brand sketches that featured his typical everyman sense of humor, but no cooler moments worth remembering.
Gillis’ opening monologue was a tight five about his Bud Light commercials and getting in shape with workout buddies Joe Rogan and Theo Von, during which he used his best female voice to imitate the gays at the gym and complained that “women dress like whores now” at the gym.
The comedian also noted that he was “bald, straight into an Adolph Hitler haircut” and the only other option was to look gay. “That’s it, either you’re gay or Hitler. And isn’t that where we are as a country?” he joked.
In the first sketch, Gillis played the role of host of a police talk show, in which he had just arrested his various guests.
Gillis then appeared in a country music video, playing a bride’s father who imagines what he will do with her room when she moves out, only to end up with Ms. Pac-Man in a cloud of black mold.
In a Green eggs and ham sketch, starring Mikey Day as the Cat in the Hat and Gillis as his defensive son who thinks his father is being ripped off, the host made things interesting when he accidentally dropped an F-bomb.
A History Channel sketch about World War II inventors patenting silent shoes saw Gillis’ character finding them handy for “sneaking” around his wife, hence the name “sneakers”.
Gillis also directed a heating and cooling commercial that honestly shows what a nightmare a process it is, with workers laughing at you, smoking outside your door, and peering out your windows.
Meanwhile, new actress Grace Reiter continued to prove her abilities by playing problem child Coco in a “Weekend Update” segment in which her mother (Ashley Padilla) can’t find a babysitter. She was a perfect match for Padilla as the bawling daughter publicly embarrassing her mother.
Reiter also shared a few sketches with Gillis, playing his elderly mother as a hospice nurse (Sarah Sherman) telling him that she only has a few days, which conflicts with her plans to see Jelly Roll in Vegas. The sketch also features an appearance by Ben Marshall as Jelly Roll, Marcello Hernandez as Jesus, and Rosalía as a horny divorcee, urging him to do the gig.
Rosalía, Marcello Hernandez, Grace Reiter, Ben Marshall and Shane Gillis on “Saturday Night Live”
The final sketch of the episode takes place at a children’s chess tournament, where young TJ (Jeremy Culhane) tries to ignore his parents (Gillis and Reiter) in the stands, where they go from arguing with exes to inappropriate flirting. Saving the best for last, Reiter was certainly a bright spot in an otherwise dull episode.
Gillis’ final hosting gig on SNL comes after he hosted in 2024 and 2025, following his removal from the NBC sketch comedy’s star cast days after its announcement. The decision came in response to resurfaced videos of Gillis mocking Asian accents, in addition to using ethnic and gay slurs.
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