Just because Kathy Griffin believes Shane Gillis has the right to make jokes doesn't mean she thinks he should.
The 65-year-old comedian and actor has joined the public slamming of Gillis' Oct. 10 controversial monologue on "Saturday Night Live," which drew backlash for remarks he made about how women dress at gyms.
"I think as a comic I’m always going to fight for the First Amendment and his right to say it and yet I don’t have to like it," she said in an interview with Page Six published Oct. 14. "So, I defend his right to say it, and I also defend everyone else’s right to think less of him."
Griffin also seemed to blame podcaster Joe Rogan for the rise of many "hacks who are doing very well" coming from "TikTok or the podcast world." She said
Gillis is "not the only guy to break out from Joe Rogan’s influence."
"There are so many; they all look alike to me. They all look like they can’t get laid; they all sound alike to me; they all tell the same joke," she added. "And they tell these jokes about women that are from like 100 years ago, like women should be in the kitchen and shut up and all this other stuff."
USA TODAY has reached out to Rogan's representatives for comment.
Dan Levy, Maren Morris also slam Shane Gillis' 'SNL' joke
Gillis continues to face scrutiny over his "SNL" monologue, in which he said, "I haven't been to the gym in so long, I didn't know women just dress like whores now."
"Women wearing short shorts to the gym does not make them whores," said "Schitt's Creek" star and creator Dan Levy in an Oct. 12 Instagram story video. "It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There's a difference there. By the way, I've seen more men's nipples at the gym than I've ever seen women showing their bodies off."
Country music singer Maren Morris posted a video on Instagram Oct. 12 of her smiling, giving the camera a middle finger and writing on the screen, "me being a wh0re at the gym." "SNL" alum Ego Nwodim joined in with a gym selfie on her Instagram story, captioned, "whore reporting for duty."
Gillis' Oct. 10 episode marked his third time hosting. The comedian, known for his controversial stand-up material, hosted in 2024 when he joked about having family members with Down syndrome in his debut monologue.
He was set to join the cast in 2019, but was fired before the season premiere over racist comments. At the time, longtime executive producer Lorne Michaels said "SNL" was unaware of Gillis' past "offensive, hurtful and unacceptable" language, but has since clarified it was NBC that decided to remove Gillis.
Contributing: Taijuan Moorman and Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kathy Griffin says 'hacks' like Shane Gillis exist because of Joe Rogan
