Saturday Night Live: Shane Gillis is a game host but the season’s subpar streak continues

Zach Vasquez Sun, October 11, 2026 at 2:41 PM UTC

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Rosalía, Shane Gillis and Kenan Thompson.Photograph: NBC/Rosalind O'Connor (Photograph: NBC/Rosalind O'Connor)The comedian drops a surprise F-bomb in an episode that’s otherwise lacking in any real notable big moments

Saturday Night Live opens onboard the newly returned USS Lincoln. Even after a record 322 days at sea, the soldiers’ suffering isn’t over, as they’re made a captive audience to “the man who put you on the boat in the first place”, secretary of war Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost). Wearing an ammunition belt made of Fireball cinnamon whiskey, he welcomes the crew back to San Diego, “which the president just asked Iran to blow up”. He briefs them on the recent goings-on on dry land (“in case you want to go back to sea”), including a promised live-streamed execution in December and the new logo for the department of war featuring “an American eagle with a Nazi vibe”.

Related: Saturday Night Live: Dakota Johnson struggles through weak episode as Taylor Swift gatecrashes

Hegseth turns things over to secretary of health and human services (and his “sad pull-up” partner) RFK Jr (James Austin Johnson), who uses the occasion to officially rename cold and flu season “cold and flu and listeria and measles and trench brain season”. He thanks the crew for being unwitting test subjects for the thousands of pounds of meat recalled over the past months, before leaving them with an unintelligible send-off – at least until Hegseth gives him a pat on the back that magically clears up his voice.

Another slight cold open; this one at least had an appropriately mean streak. And at long last, the show finally gives us a good RFK Jr caricature (if it can even be called that). Johnson’s got the vocal spasms down pat. I’m sure some out there will take offense over SNL mocking the medical condition that causes RFK Jr’s garbled speech, but we are far past the point where selective outrage should matter when it comes to these people. That said, as good as Johnson is in the role, it means we shouldn’t expect to see any sketches with RFK Jr and Trump in the same room at the same time.

Comedian Shane Gillis returns to host for a third time. Most viewers are probably well aware of Gillis’s history with Saturday Night Live: he was hired in 2019 only to be fired a few days later when clips of him making what many considered to be racist and homophobic jokes on podcasts surfaced. Having already addressed this in his past hosting gigs, Gillis dives straight into a new stand-up routine. He talks about his attempts at losing weight by hiking and going to the gym, which only result in him creeping out women; growing up being bullied by his “two big fat bitch sisters”; and a receding hairline that he can’t fix without looking gay or like Hitler.

As with his previous monologues, it’s a watered-down version of his normal material, with just enough bro-y but self-aware edginess thrown in to appease his fans and uphold his image as an anti-woke icon (this time, he swaps out jokes about race or the mentally challenged to mostly take jabs at lesbians). The audience is with him for the most part, even if they’re not exactly rolling in the aisles. The closest he comes to losing them is when he tells a story about hanging out with his friends, podcast morons Theo Von and Joe Rogan. Given the political leanings of SNL’s usual audience, it’s surprising their names aren’t met with boos and hisses.

Up first is Cop Talk, “the only talk show made by cops, for everyone”. Gillis and Mikey Day play the hosts, two aggressive, trigger-happy policemen who don’t interview their guests so much as intimidate and assault them. Guests include a wimpy author they run off, a nervous hipster artist they taze for no reason, and a drunk and stoned female actor that they flirt with. A solid idea – Gillis makes for a natural badged thug, and the “word from our sponsor” being an intervention from one of the cops’ actual AA sponsors is inspired – but this feels rushed.

A sappy country ballad sees Gillis play a proud father of the bride, who watches her dance at her wedding while dreaming about “the cool shit I can put in her room”, such as a drum kit, pinball machine, Pac-Man arcade game, and a life-size cutout of Shaq. Things take a twisted turn after his obsession with his new man cave results in his wife leaving him for her Zumba instructor, leading him down a path of attempted suicide, black mold poisoning, and sexual hallucinations involving Ms Pac-Man.

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We then get an enactment of the Dr Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham. Gillis plays the son of the stubborn protagonist (Day), aggressively defending his sunsetting father from Sam-I-Am’s (Andrew Dismukes) pushy attempts to get him to eat the titular meal. Within the first few seconds, Gillis stumbles over his lines and drops a live F-bomb. The rest of the sketch struggles to find its feet until Day ad-libs a line about him “[saying] a bad word!” No doubt some viewers will suspect this was pre-planned, but it seemed like an honest mistake. We’ll see what, if any, repercussions Gillis’s slip-up brings.

The founder of a shoe company from the 1920s calls a board meeting to unveil the first-ever canvas shoe. Although designed for running, sporting and strolling, Gillis’s board member immediately recognizes that they’re also perfect for “sneaking”. His pitch – “sneakers: she’ll never hear you” – is met with pushback at first, but it eventually wins the day. Like the cop talk show sketch, there’s a kernel of a good idea here, but unfortunately it feels like its racing to be over and done with. At least it ends on a chuckle-worthy punchline.

Upfront Heating and Air Conditioning is the only HVAC service that tells you from the beginning, “this is gonna be a nightmare”. Said nightmare involves a crew of unlicensed losers, pedos and slobs running roughshod through a suburban home. Dark blue-collar comedy with a heavy dose of existentialist anxiety, this sketch is reminiscent of Gillis’s popular Netflix series Tires (which you would think he would have promo’d at some point during his monologue, considering it recently dropped its third season, but nope).

Weekend Update opens with a developing tragic story regarding the president (“No, not that,” Jost is quick to tell the disappointed audience). Once again, Trump has failed to win the Nobel Peace prize, leaving him furious, despite the various acts of war he has started this year. Per Jost: “It’s truly like if I thought I might win an Oscar for Tom & Jerry.”

Update’s first guest is Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr Wonderful from Shark Tank (Johnson). After being forced to downsize his plan to build the world’s largest datacenter in Utah, he makes a pitch for his vision: “These things are terrible and don’t belong anywhere, which is why I’m proposing to build it in Utah … you have to understand: I don’t live there.” Another precise impersonation from Johnson, who really should be used in this capacity far more often.

Next up is a mother whose babysitter canceled (Ashley Padilla). Joined by her troublesome young daughter Coco (Grace Reiter), she attempts to run through hokey fall hobbies like leaf collecting and straw doll making, only to flip out when Coco starts talking about all the times she’s gotten lost (as well as her mother’s brief fling with a local farmer and the mystery of who her father is). Padilla is turned up to 11 here, but the dynamic between her and Reiter’s characters never quite gel.

Reiter returns for the next sketch as an ailing old woman in a hospital. She only has days left to live, which deeply upsets her son since he has weekend tickets for Jelly Roll at The Sphere. Taking time to think things over, he is visited by a vision of Jelly Roll (Ben Marshall), along with Cool Jesus (Dismukes) and a sexy single he is destined to meet (Rosalía), and even his mom, who passes away during his mental fugue. They all happily advise him to go see the show. Less welcome are the premonitions of his own death in two week’s time.

A middle school chess final goes off the rails when the divorced, white trash parents (Gillis and Reiter, again) of one of the players make a loud public scene in the stands. Their bickering leads to a rekindling of their passion, and next thing, they’re making out on the chess board in front of everyone. Aggressive sports parents at a chess tournament is a great set-up, especially as a vehicle for Gillis, but this sketch isn’t about that. Instead, it’s just a lazy excuse to laugh at dumb rednecks. Which is fine in and of itself, but one of the reasons Gillis has been so successful is because his work – be it his stand-up, sketch and scripted comedy, or podcast appearances – feels like it comes from a sincere and real working-class POV. Here, he may as well be playing Larry the Cable Guy. Reiter’s performance, meanwhile, feels like a rehashed version of a forgotten Kate McKinnon character.

Three episodes in, Saturday Night Live’s new season continues its weak streak. Gillis did acquit himself better than the last two hosts, but that’s a small bar to clear being that he’s a professional comedian. It seems clearer than ever that Gillis was never going to work on Saturday Night Live. But for whatever reason, he and the show can’t seem to quit one another, so – potential heat from his F-bomb notwithstanding – he’s probably only a couple of years away from being inducted into the Five Timers Club.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”