“Saturday Night Live” veteran Kenan Thompson says the controversy over Shane Gillis’ joke about women dressing like “whores” at the gym took attention away from the cast and musical guest Rosalía during Gillis’ hosting appearance.
“If he were to come back, then I think we would have to have some sort of real chat where people’s actions don’t wave-pool the rest of us.” — Kenan Thompson
Speaking at the Axios Media Trends Live summit, Thompson singled out new cast member Grace Reiter’s work. “Grace [Reiter], one of our newest cast members, had a phenomenal show, and it’s sad because nobody’s even talking about it,” he said. “Even [musical guest] Rosalía is getting overshadowed because we want to go back and forth on what’s offensive and what’s not.”
Thompson said he knows Gillis and doesn’t consider him a mean person. He described the challenge as giving performers creative freedom while taking care with harmful language. Whether Gillis gets another invitation to host, he emphasized, is “not my decision.”
Dan Levy criticized Gillis over the joke, as did former “SNL” cast members Ego Nwodim and Cecily Strong. Dana Carvey defended him, saying he “didn’t understand the kerfuffle.”
Comedians need room to take risks, argued Peter Micelli during his appearance alongside Thompson at the summit. Micelli is CEO and co-founder of Range Media Partners, which represents Gillis. “Comedians test boundaries, and if they don’t test boundaries, guess what? Nobody’s going to watch them,” Micelli said.