Inde Navarrette Used Her SNL Monologue to Hit Back at Shane Gillis’ Gym Joke

The Story

Navarrette opened like any first-time host, with a quick introduction: “You probably know me from the movie Obsession.” Then she leaned into the horror. She told the crowd her boyfriend was there to support her and that they have “such a chill relationship,” and the camera cut to a man bound and gagged in a chair in the audience (Saturday Night Live (YouTube); Variety).

From there she moved to her big summer news. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m gonna be in a Marvel movie,” she said. “And I know it’s really important for Marvel that you get really fit. So I’ve been working out a lot. So every morning I put on my little whore outfit and I hit the gym” (Saturday Night Live (YouTube); TheWrap).

She let the line linger, and it drew howls from the Studio 8H audience. USA Today called it a “sweet smackdown,” and The Guardian said she “gets a dig in” at the previous host (USA Today; The Guardian).

The joke she was answering

Gillis hosted SNL for the third time on Oct. 10. In his monologue he said: “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now” (TheWrap). PCP covered the backlash at the time in Shane Gillis’ SNL Monologue Draws Backlash Over Joke About Women at the Gym.

Among the critics was Schitt’s Creek creator Dan Levy, who posted an Instagram video about the bit: “Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists” (TheWrap).

Then came the costumes

“Since none of the cast could go out tonight, I thought they could just show off their costumes here,” Navarrette said. Marcello Hernández came out as a “Sexy TSA Agent,” Kam Patterson as Elizabeth Holmes, and Jeremy Culhane as Wolverine, who told her: “I’d love to be ‘Inde’ movie with you” (NBC Insider).

She also had a joke about her own name: “A lot of people ask me if Inde is short for Indiana, but really it’s long for De” (Saturday Night Live (YouTube)).