Tom Segura defends Shane Gillis on 2 Bears, 1 Cave

Tom Segura spent an episode of 2 Bears, 1 Cave standing up for Shane Gillis. The episode is titled "Shane Gillis vs SNL: Round 2," and Segura's position is simple. He calls Gillis "a legitimately very very funny guy" and "one of our best."

The line that does the heavy lifting is "More than one thing can be true." That is a defense of the guy, not a defense of the jokes. Segura says the reason he would not have said anything otherwise is that he would have come off badly, adding that Gillis "he's a good guy." He also points out that plenty of people did not know who Gillis was before this, as popular as he already is.

Bert texted him immediately

Bert Kreischer stays mostly quiet on the controversy itself, then pivots to praising the pants Gillis mentioned. He does say he reached out fast. "I texted him the second this all happened... I always have your back," Bert says. He also drops that Gillis's ex-girlfriend went after him, without going further.

That is the whole Gillis portion, and it fits the pattern of the last week. Comics who know him keep splitting the difference between the man and the material, the same split that has run through every earlier reaction to the monologue.

The rest of the episode

The show does not stay on Gillis long. The two move to Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, with Bert declaring himself "Team Katie" and guessing she lasts "under six months, maybe under three." He claims she failed the California bar exam before moving to China with her husband.

Bert also gets into therapy and people pleasing, built around a story about a woman on a plane who Googled him mid flight and then turned to him and asked what he did. His answer was nothing. There is a Chris D'Elia stretch too, where Bert says D'Elia charmed Rachel Ray into inviting him and his wife to her house in Tuscany within an hour of filming "Something's Burning." And there is a Mark Zuckerberg run, where Bert says they met at a UFC fight, Zuckerberg knew who he was, and the watch on his wrist was a million dollar watch.

Bert closes with dates. He says he will be in Chicago November 6th and 7th at the Chicago Theater.

The real story is that Segura is one of the bigger names to put a clear sentence on the record about Gillis, and he chose the most careful sentence available.