Saturday Night Live‘s UK counterpart had some choice words tonight for Shane Gillis over his controversial SNL monologue.
And, unlike the original, Saturday Night Live UK was free to swear while saying them.
During this week’s “Weekend Update,” cast member Ania Magliano used a story about women being given cycling shorts to protect them from upskirting as a setup to turn her attention to Gillis.
“Wearing the gym shorts will protect women from being up-skirted, but it does make them vulnerable to something much worse,” Magliano joked, as a photo of Gillis delivering his SNL monologue appeared on screen.
She then pivoted to another controversy from Gillis’ episode. “Last week on SNL, comedian Shane Gillis also caused controversy by dropping the F-bomb,” Magliano said. “Oh, Shane, you’re not allowed to say that, you stupid f*cking c*nt.”
The dig came one week after Gillis accidentally dropped an F-bomb during a sketch on SNL, briefly throwing the sketch off the rails and prompting him to twice apologize for the slip while still live on the air—once at the end of the sketch itself, and later at goodnights.
SNL UK, which airs at 10 p.m. local time, is not subject to the same rules on profanity as its American counterpart. The UK’s 9 p.m. watershed gives broadcasters considerably more latitude to air strong language later at night.
The American SNL, meanwhile, airs on NBC, whose standards and practices prohibit foul language. Its coast-to-coast broadcast begins at 8:30 p.m. on the West Coast, where FCC restrictions on indecent and profane broadcast content still apply, and airs on a slight delay.
Magliano’s setup was a reference to the other controversy surrounding Gillis’ episode: a portion of his monologue in which he joked of a visit to the gym, “I didn’t know women just dressed like whores now.”
The bit drew widespread criticism, with some of the backlash aimed not only at Gillis but at SNL for airing the material.
While Lorne Michaels and reps for the New York show have been mum on Gillis’ comments so far, the show’s British cousin—which is executive produced by Michaels—has now had its say.
Watch Magliano’s full SNL UK “Weekend Update” bit on Gillis at the top of this post.
