#Shane Gillis Struggles With Jokes for Monologue in ‘Saturday Night Live’ Promo

Shane Gillis is struggling to workshop jokes in a promo for his Saturday Night Live hosting debut.

The comedian is hosting the upcoming episode of NBC’s sketch comedy show alongside musical guest 21 Savage.

In the video released on Wednesday, Gillis is testing some of his jokes for his monologue for SNL castmembers Marcello Hernández and Sarah Sherman, but they aren’t landing too well.

“I went to an Amish wedding once. I was the only one there who could do the Electric Slide,” he says, getting an awkward laugh from Hernández and Sherman.

Gillis continues, “New Planet of the Apes is coming out. It’s going to be bananas.”

He then teased the idea of doing some crowd work by asking audience members, “Are you guys dating? Are you seeing each other?” Hernández and Sherman jokingly went along, saying, “Yeah!”

“Gosh, must be nice,” Gillis says, followed by an awkward pause. “I’ve been alone for a while.”

He concludes his jokes with, “Who likes impressions? And the crowd will be like, ‘Yeah!’ And then I’m like, you guys ever seen a horse and it’s like… [cue horse impression].”

After telling the SNL castmembers, “That’s about it. I’m about done with that monologue,” Hernández responds in a questionable tone, “Great… I think it’s right there.”

In another SNL promo released on Friday, Gillis is standing next to 21 Savage and Kenan Thompson as he promotes the upcoming show. In one clip, the comedian is wearing black sunglasses to match the rapper.

“We gonna talk about the sunglasses?” Thompson asks as Gillis responds, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. These are cool.”

Thompson continues, “Are you trying to be like 21 Savage?” but Gillis claims that he isn’t. The rapper proceeds to build the comedian’s confidence, telling him, “I think you look alright.”

Gillis’ turn as host comes years after he was fired from SNL in 2019 shortly after being cast on the sketch comedy show when racial and homophobic slurs he used on a podcast resurfaced.