Flavor Flav Backs Dan Levy After Shane Gillis’ “SNL” Gym Joke

Flavor Flav backed Dan Levy’s call for men to defend women after Shane Gillis mocked women’s gym clothes during his latest “Saturday Night Live” monologue.

The Public Enemy rapper shared a report about Levy’s criticism on X on Monday, October 12, adding two words: “Important allyship.” His post endorsed the actor’s response as musicians and other entertainers weighed in on the routine.

Gillis made the remarks while hosting Saturday’s episode. In a bit about getting back into shape, he complained about women’s shorts, said women dressed like “whores” at the gym and joked about being caught staring in the background of their workout videos.

Levy answered in an Instagram video posted Sunday. The “Schitt’s Creek” co-creator argued that women’s clothing was not the problem and urged other men to challenge the way women were being discussed on national television.

“Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores,” Levy said. “It makes the men calling them whores misogynists.”

He also argued that treating women as objects in the media encouraged men to treat them that way elsewhere. Levy framed speaking up as a responsibility that extended beyond women themselves.

Flav’s support followed his own work to raise the profile of women in sports.

In July, he hosted SHE Weekend in Las Vegas, a celebration that brought female Olympians and Paralympians together for public events and meetings with potential sponsors. Athletes and supporters used the gathering to call for more visibility and progress on pay equity.

His backing of Levy also came as Gillis’ relationship with “SNL” drew renewed attention.

The show hired the comedian in 2019, then dropped him before his debut after podcast clips surfaced in which he used racist and homophobic slurs. He later returned as a host in 2024 and 2025, making Saturday’s appearance his third turn leading the show.

Other music figures responded to the gym remarks in their own ways.

Maren Morris posted a workout video set to her song “be a b####,” turning Gillis’ insult back on him. Jewel, Lisa Loeb and Kristin Chenoweth also showed support for Levy in his comments.

Maggie Baird, Billie Eilish and FINNEAS’ mother, shared Levy’s video and said she had gasped at the joke. She pointed to her own sketch-comedy background while rejecting the idea that the remarks were harmless.

“It’s actually dangerous for women to promote this b#######,” Baird wrote.