On the most recent episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, comedian Shane Gillis got himself in trouble with liberals over comments he made about women’s gym attire. A few days later, on Monday, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel made similar comments about new White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia, but so far, the response from the left has been silence.
During his monologue, Gillis recalled returning to the gym, “Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn't know women just dressed like whores now. Look, I'm sorry, there's no other way to describe. Have you seen it? I've seen it, the shorts. Have you seen the shorts? Those neon, they’re, like, artificial bait-colored. The wrinkles go, like, around the cheeks and combine at the butthole. And don't look, you're not allowed to look. For real, don't look, they are filming. I'm in the background of like ten TikToks right now.”
It is possible to see how Gillis wasn’t actually talking about women in the generic sense but the certain type of woman who is more interested in being a social media influencer than actually working out. Nevertheless, the reaction to Gillis’s remarks was swift and harsh.
Here's what Shane Gillis said, "Also, I haven’t been to the gym so long, I didn't know women just dressed like whores now. Look, I'm sorry, there's no other way to describe. Have you seen it? I've seen it, the shorts. Have you seen the shorts? Those neon, they’re, like artificial… pic.twitter.com/ia7VoNbJ1S
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) October 13, 2026
Actor Dan Levy denounced it, “Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There’s a difference there… more men need to be standing up in opposition to it because it’s complacency that has created the environment with which women are sexually assaulted, and it’s a ‘conversation’ as opposed to a crime.”
Feminist author Jessica Valenti tied it to the ongoing Cornell investigation, “This is his contribution to that conversation,” she said. “This is him telling us what he thinks of the discourse on sexual assault. ... That is rape culture.”
USA Today TV critic Kelly Lawler authored a piece titled, “Shane Gillis degraded women on ‘SNL’ We aren’t angry enough.”
NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben posted a thread on BlueSky, “I know this is nothing you haven’t heard before but like In the year of our Lord 2026 a dude went on the big comedy sketch institution program and said 'lol women dress like whores' and…it’s all fine and good? It’s not all over my feeds? Is it bc no one watches SNL or like I dunno normal misogyny? Also sir I’ve been to gyms and it’s women who could crush a dude lifting heavy shit. Also wear what you want while you’re getting ripped, girls. Fucking hell.”
Meanwhile, Kimmel put up a picture of Zacharia in a sports bra and leggings while taking a selfie at the gym and used it to suggest she’s dumb, “Oh, we have a—we got a new White House press secretary. Here he is. His name is Dan Fitzsimmons. He's a Harvard graduate with a master's from the Columbia Journalism School. He's known for his fair and thoughtful responses. Oh, wait, just kidding. This is the new press secretary, former Newsmax commentator Katie Zacharia, seen here, thinking.”
You know how the left is trying to cancel Shane Gillis for his SNL remarks about women at the gym, well, Jimmy Kimmel puts up a picture of Katie Zacharia at the gym, "Oh, wait, just kidding. This is the new press secretary, former Newsmax commentator Katie Zacharia, seen here,… pic.twitter.com/ANYeqhfVev
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) October 13, 2026
Kimmel then put up another photo of Zacharia, this one of her with Trump at a TPUSA event, and quipped, “Katie met a number of qualifications for the job. She has blonde hair. She can do a thumbs up, and end of list. Really, what else do you need? Where do they all get that same face? Is that makeup or do they have a machine that stamps it on?”
Once upon a time, Kimmel’s writer/producer/wife, Molly McNearney, lamented, "People were still making pantsuit jokes. I was like, ‘What the fuck are you doing? You’re minimizing this woman [Hillary Clinton] to her clothes?’ We’d never talk about a man’s outfit.”
Whether one thinks Gillis was taking a fair point about influencer culture run amok or that he stepped over the line, it is hard to avoid the fact that Kimmel essentially told the same joke about one specific woman. Yet, the political movement that considers itself to be the party of women and Kimmel to be a free speech warrior who speaks truth to power cannot be bothered when the woman is on the opposite side of the aisle.
Here are transcripts for the October 10 and 12-taped shows:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
10/13/2026
12:34 AM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: Oh, we have a—we got a new White House press secretary. Here he is. His name is Dan Fitzsimmons. He's a Harvard graduate with a master’s from the Columbia Journalism School. He's known for his fair and thoughtful responses. Oh, wait, just kidding. This is the new press secretary, former Newsmax commentator Katie Zacharia, seen here, thinking. Katie met a number of qualifications for the job. She has blonde hair. She can do a thumbs up, and end of list. Really, what else do you need? Where do they all get that same face? Is that makeup or do they have a machine that stamps it on?
***
NBC Saturday Night Live
10/10/2026
11:39 PM ET
SHANE GILLIS: Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn't know women just dressed like whores now. Look, I'm sorry, there's no other way to describe. Have you seen it? I've seen it, the shorts. Have you seen the shorts? Those neon, they’re, like, artificial bait-colored. The wrinkles go, like, around the cheeks and combine at the butthole. And don't look, you're not allowed to look. For real, don't look, they are filming. I'm in the background of like ten TikToks right now.
