Chris D’Elia Defends Shane Gillis’s Gym Joke, Saying Critics Mistake Its Setup for the Punchline

Gossip

By January Nelson

Updated 3 minutes ago, October 14, 2026

Chris D’Elia has come to Shane Gillis’s defense after critics turned on Gillis’s gym bit from his October 10 Saturday Night Live monologue, arguing that the backlash mistakes the joke’s setup for its punchline.

Chris D’Elia filmed a shirtless, roughly 74-second video, captioned “Hope everyone is ok.,” to back up Shane Gillis after critics turned on Gillis’s gym bit from his October 10 Saturday Night Live monologue.

Gillis began by describing his own discomfort at the gym as a fat guy surrounded by jacked gay men. He then said he hadn’t been to the gym in so long he “didn’t know women just dressed like whores now,” and described neon, “artificial-bait colored” shorts with wrinkles that “all combine at the butthole.” Dan Levy and others pulled that line out and treated it as the whole joke.

The routine turns to Gillis warning against looking because the women are filming: “I’m in the background of like ten TikToks right now.” The transcript marks laughter after both the shorts description and the TikTok payoff. D’Elia’s defense focuses on that turn, with Gillis casting himself as the creep caught in the background.

D’Elia’s full response:

“I have a question. Why are people saying that about the Shane Gilles stuff? Why are they saying that’s the joke that he there’s no joke? He called a woman a horse so that’s the joke. Um where’s the joke?

Not the joke. The set that’s how he set it up and the joke is he’s being filmed in the back of a bunch of TikToks because he’s the creep. That’s the joke.Why are people like it’s so not funny just calling women whores that but that wasn’t the joke part. The joke part was the joke part. Not the not joke part?

Are you willfully misunderstanding to try and push your narrative or prove your point? Or do you just not or do you just not kind of get what parts I guess are are supposed to be funny and supposed to be jokes which may be possible. But if that’s the case know that about yourself. And shut up you know.”

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