Shane Gillis on SNL: What the “canceled” comedian’s return as host says about the state of the culture war.

As far as celebrity cancellations go, Shane Gillis appeared to be an open-and-shut case. After his fall from grace, Gillis became a star among fans of the post-ironic leftist comedy collective Cum Town, the far more right-leaning Barstool Sports content empire, and, of course, The Joe Rogan Experience—three dominions of cultural capital that don’t have much more in common other than a combined distaste for a certain brand of earnest, identity-based liberalism commonly associated with people who aren’t edgy white men. Related From Slate The Seething Stand-Up Underground That Gave Rise to Shane Gillis There’s only one thing that could get in his way now: For all that Gillis himself has eschewed railing against “woke” culture, his more reactionary post-cancellation boosters sure haven’t. One user snapped a photo of her and posted it on X, writing in a now-deleted tweet, “Gillis can feel the rage behind him.” Later, the same user unearthed the guitar player’s Instagram account, highlighting a post she had made in support of Black Lives Matter as further grounds for humiliation. In the aftermath of the SNL monologue, I noticed other Gillis fans celebrating, to the point of ecstasy, his usage of words like “gay” and “retarded”—the punchlines, mild as they were, weren’t nearly as relevant as the glacial nudges to the Overton window.