Shane Gillis‘ return to Saturday Night Live featured a not-safe-to-air slip in a Dr. Seuss-inspired sketch.

On this weekend’s episode, the comedian accidentally dropped an F-bomb while playing the Cat in the Hat’s (Mikey Day) defensive son who is suspicious of Sam I Am (Andrew Dismukes) pressuring him to eat green eggs and ham.

“Hey, what the hell is wrong with you? My dad said he doesn’t like them. Walk away,” said Gillis.

“Bro, it’s a non-starter. He said he doesn’t f*cking,” he added, immediately covering his mouth. “Jeez! — like ’em.”

Although Gillis moved on in the sketch, Day called back to the expletive later. “Zachary’s the one who’s going. I want you out of this house. You’re a loser, and you said a bad word!” he said.

Gillis acknowledged, “Yes I did.”

He can be heard saying “sorry about earlier” at the very end of the sketch. (You can watch it above.)

While censors didn’t catch the F-bomb on the live broadcast and stream, SNL posted the sketch to social media later that night with the word muted. (The expletive is audible in the recorded show on Peacock.)

Gillis referenced the incident during the curtain call at the end of the episode. “And sorry about earlier,” he said before thanking everyone. (You can watch a video below.)

Gillis was removed from SNL’s featured cast in 2019, shortly after he was announced. He’s since hosted the show three times, including in 2024 and 2025.