NEW YORK — Shane Gillis is speaking out following backlash sparked by his controversial “Saturday Night Live” monologue.

The comedian opened the Oct. 10 show with a monologue, as all celebrity hosts do, except his opener received widespread attention over a joke about how women now dress like “whores” while working out at the gym.

“Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe it,” he said from the stage last month. “Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. The shorts. Have you seen the shorts? Those neon, they’re like artificial bait-colored. And the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combined 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 like 10 TikToks right now.”

Gillis addressed the subsequent controversy during an appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. First, he pushed back against the suggestion that "SNL" preapproved the material, after one podcast host pointed out that he performed the same bit at New York City’s Comedy Cellar the week before.

“Not to defend 'SNL,' they don’t approve it. I mean, they could shut it down,” Gillis responded.

“The funniest part was, I was going in — they were like, ‘What’s going on with the monologue?’ And I was like, ‘It’s not great, but I don’t say anything bad,'” he continued. “The whole time, I was like, ‘Fellas, I’m giving you a solid C-minus of a monologue, but I promise there’s no controversy. I’m calling myself fat for f—ing 10 minutes. That’s it.'”

The “Tires” star also specifically touched on the joke that sparked the backlash. He suggested the negative response “obviously had a lot to do with the climate” at the time.

Of women’s current gym attire, he added: “For the record, [I] don’t have a problem with it.”

Gillis also reflected on the last time he kicked up "SNL" controversy, after he was fired from the show in 2019 over past racial and homophobic comments. It came just four days after his casting was announced.

“The first time I got fired, I kept social media and in my head I was like, ‘That guy talked s—,'” he recalled. “This time, I just deleted everything immediately. So, I don’t really know.”

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