Inde Navarrette used her Halloween debut on Saturday Night Live to revisit one of the show's most controversial jokes of October, delivering a pointed response to comedian Shane Gillis without mentioning him by name.

The 25-year-old actress, known for her role in the horror film Obsession, hosted the October 31 episode and used her opening monologue to discuss her upcoming appearance as Rogue in Marvel's new X-Men film.

After explaining that preparing for the superhero role meant spending more time working out, Navarrette delivered a line that immediately recalled Gillis' recent comments about women's gym clothing.

"So every morning I put on my little whore outfit, and I hit the gym," she joked, prompting laughter and applause from the studio audience.

The remark was brief, but its connection to an earlier Saturday Night Live episode was unmistakable. Navarrette had repeated the same derogatory description Gillis used just three weeks earlier, turning his observation about women's clothing into a joke about her own fitness routine.

What Shane Gillis originally said about women at the gym

During his October 10 appearance as Saturday Night Live host, Gillis discussed returning to a public gym after spending considerable time away from working out.

His monologue took a controversial turn when he suggested that women attending gyms now dressed like "whores", before describing the brightly coloured, tight-fitting shorts he had noticed.

He also joked about the difficulty of looking in their direction because some gym-goers record videos of themselves exercising.

The remarks, delivered during his SNL opening monologue, attracted criticism over the language used to describe women and their clothing choices.

Actor Dan Levy publicly challenged the joke, arguing that wearing revealing workout clothes did not justify describing women in derogatory terms. Former SNL cast member Ego Nwodim also responded on social media with a gym-related joke of her own.

Others defended Gillis' right to use provocative material. Former SNL performer Dana Carvey, for example, argued that the comments should be understood as comedy rather than a literal statement about women.

Why Inde Navarrette's response was different

Unlike some of the more direct criticism Gillis received, Navarrette did not deliver a speech about sexism or explicitly accuse the comedian of wrongdoing.

Instead, she incorporated the disputed language into a personal joke about preparing for a physically demanding film role.

The difference matters because her monologue was not an announced confrontation with Gillis. It was a reference embedded within a larger performance about her acting career, allowing viewers familiar with the earlier episode to recognise the connection.

The timing also made the reference particularly clear. Both remarks were delivered on the same programme, just 21 days apart.

Navarrette's joke can be seen in her October 31 opening monologue, which also featured references to her Obsession character and her upcoming Marvel appearance.

The controversy had already reached the SNL cast

Navarrette's performance followed an increasingly public discussion about Gillis' material and the boundaries of comedy on network television.

On October 20, longtime Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson addressed the issue during an Axios Media Trends Live discussion.

Thompson argued that comedians needed room for creative expression while remaining conscious of potentially harmful language. He also expressed frustration that the controversy had overshadowed other performances from Gillis' episode.

Asked about the possibility of Gillis returning to host, Thompson said the decision was not his to make, but suggested that a conversation about the previous monologue would be appropriate.

Navarrette's Halloween appearance subsequently brought the gym-clothing joke back to the very stage where it began. This time, rather than focusing on what women were wearing, the punchline came from a woman deliberately adopting Gillis' description of herself.