Shane Gillis returned to host Saturday Night Live for the third time on Saturday night, delivering a monologue built around his weight, his balding hairline, and the nickname Joe Rogan and Theo Von gave him in a sauna — then accidentally swearing live on air during a Dr. Seuss sketch and spending the curtain call in apparent apology. Rosalía was the musical guest, making her second appearance on the show.
Gillis opened by confessing he needed to lose weight — “When you finally get so fat, you’re like, alright, hit that fat rock bottom” — before moving through a series of observations about hiking, public gyms in New York, and the athleticwear choices of women he had observed there. The section drew predictable controversy online. He then arrived at the story of the sauna nickname.
Visiting Joe Rogan’s private gym, Gillis said he was alone in the sauna in his underwear when Theo Von and Rogan appeared at the glass door. “Joe just goes, ‘Hey, Theo said you looked like a gas station egg.'” The line that stung most, Gillis said, was the full description that followed: “A wet, bagged, hard boiled egg.” He saw his own reflection in the closing glass door and admitted the comparison was accurate.
From there he turned to his hairline, which he said had “balded directly into an Adolf Hitler haircut.” He noted the particular problem of the fringe falling forward during speeches — an adjustment that, he argued, offers only two options: “You’re either gay or you’re Hitler.”
The On-Air Moment
Later in the episode, during a Dr. Seuss-themed sketch, Gillis dropped the F-word live on NBC — saying “he doesn’t fucking” before catching himself and switching to “Jeez! Like ’em.” He recovered quickly in the moment and addressed it directly at the end of the night. “Sorry about earlier,” he said in his closing remarks.
Gillis made his SNL debut as host in February 2024 and returned in March 2025. His connection to the show has an unusual history — he was cast as a featured player in 2019 and fired days later when a video resurfaced of him using a racial slur on a podcast.
The Cold Open
The episode opened with Colin Jost playing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, welcoming the USS Abraham Lincoln home to San Diego after more than 300 days at sea — a cold open that played directly off President Trump’s comments at a Nebraska campaign rally this week in which he said Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego.
Jost’s Hegseth welcomed the sailors back to “sunny San Diego, which the president just asked Iran to blow up.” The sketch noted the ship had executed over 3,000 combat missions with “zero casualties, zero flight mishaps, and zero working toilets.” A joke about the Department of War’s new logo — described by a sailor as a Nazi eagle, and corrected by Hegseth as “an American eagle with a Nazi vibe” — was one of the episode’s more pointed political moments.
What’s Next for Season 52
Season 52 has now seen Jalen Brunson, Dakota Johnson, and Gillis host consecutive episodes. Next up is Inde Navarette, who will make her hosting debut in the Halloween episode on October 31st, with Gracie Abrams as musical guest.
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