Shane Gillis, the stand-up comedian who’s partly famous for being fired as a cast member from “Saturday Night Live” before he even debuted, was somehow invited back to host the show over the weekend. Of course, that honor allowed him to deliver the iconic monologue.
For Gillis — surrounded by the unfunny scolds who fired him in 2019 in part for making the type of joke that’s always been funny — that meant doing cracks about Down syndrome. His Down syndrome bits are crowd-pleasers, which is probably why they’ve become one of his go-to schticks. He delivered Down jokes at a show in Madison, Wisconsin, last month to uproarious laughter, and clips of his “Uncle Danny” impression have gone viral on social media. They’re hilarious.
They’re also spot-on. Not just because they’re so comedically accurate, but because Gillis conveys — implicitly and explicitly — the undeniable truth abortion supporters attempt to hide when they try to convince themselves and scared moms that children with genetic anomalies are less worthy of life. In Gillis’ words: “Literally, there’s zero difference between us and them.”
And he would know. He’s got at least an uncle and a niece with the diagnosis. His family even opened a coffee shop in his hometown that employs people with Down syndrome, and the line of customers is apparently out the door every day — “not because there’s a ton of people going, but service is—,” Gillis joked good-naturedly.
Conservatives will sometimes make jokes about
