Shane Gillis’ Second Shot at Hosting ‘SNL’ Proves He Would Have Been A One-And-Done Cast Member

Now that Lorne Michaels has tapped Shane Gillis to host Saturday Night Live for a second time (we get it, Lorne, nobody is going to tell you who you can and can’t hire), can we declare the grand Gillis experiment over now? We’ve got a clear view of what Gillis the Cast Member would have looked like — a nondescript guy who struggles for a season before fading into an SNL trivia question.

This conclusion isn’t an indictment of Gillis the stand-up. Whether or not he’s your cup of Bud Light, his politically incorrect, MAGA-friendly everyman appeal isn’t hard to understand. But that persona makes for forgettable sketch comedy characters, especially when the last two seasons have featured another comic with a clueless white guy vibe who does SNL so much better in Nate Bargatze. He has “Washington’s Dream,” “Lifeguard” and other memorable sketches under his belt. Gillis has had two 90-minute attempts to deliver a single killer sketch, and here we sit, still waiting. 

I’ll give Gillis credit for this — he’s really trying to make the put-upon shlub thing happen. In “Dad’s House,” he’s the sober-for-today divorced dad hosting a PBS Kids show. The word of the day is “Alimony,” a tired joke that seemed fresher 40 years ago when Eddie Murphy did it on “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood.”  

Gillis’ character in the commercial parody “CouplaBeers” is the same exact guy. Okay, so he’s begrudgingly married in this one but not for long — it’s the character six months before he ends up hosting “Dad’s House.” The joke: No family obligation is so soul-crushing that it can’t be navigated with a CouplaBeers.

Ironically, Gillis works best when he plays straight man to comics like Heidi Gardner who are actually skilled at creating sketch-comedy characters. In “Winery Tour,” Gillis is just fine as the beleaguered boyfriend who has to take Instagram photos of the image-obsessed Gardner. She’s specific, original and funny — take notes, Shane. 

From Dan Aykroyd to Phil Hartman to Bill Hader, SNL always has reserved a slot for a good straight man, the guy who can play the befuddled dad, the oblivious spouse or the self-important boss at work. The problem: Those comics were awesome at playing unhinged characters as well. Gillis is not — or at least, he’s yet to show us this hidden talent. 

That’s a problem. If Gillis couldn’t make an impression in two full shows featuring him in nearly every sketch, how would he ever have broken through as a featured player? He wouldn’t have been alone. Remember Luke Null? John Rudnitsky? Brooks Whelan? John Milhiser? They were all single-season cast members of the past 15 years, funny enough to get cast but never breaking through and convincing Michaels they deserved a shot at a second season. 

After Gillis’ two forgettable shows as host, it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t have ended up as another SNL one-and-done.