The Shady Side Of Shane Gillis

Shane Gillis made a joke about the land down under that didn’t go over so well with some Australians. In his Netflix special “Beautiful Dogs,” he says, “It’s just a whole country doing nothing. That’s what I like about them. They’re just down there — zero exports, creating nothing.” He clearly hasn’t listened to Men at Work extolling the continent as the “land of plenty”: flowing beer, Vegemite, and chundering men. According to Gillis, the only thing Oz ever gave him was a viral video of a kangaroo getting punched by a man. And yes, Gillis has made tour stops in Australia, so he’s more than happy to take the money of the citizens that he pretty much deemed worthless. On the Netflix Is a Joke Instagram account, one Aussie commenter tried to educate the comedian by writing, “We actually produce a lot of the world’s fresh fruits and vegetables.”

Gillis also said that he considers America a better place than Australia (although it did rank No. 2 on his list). This really ticked off some Aussies, who argued that their country offers free medical care and safety for its schoolchildren. “Would rather [be] doing nothing and exporting nothing than having to buy my kid a Kevlar backpack to go to school,” read one comment. But one the most scathing critiques was aimed at Gillis himself: “This isn’t comedy, it’s why everyone outside America thinks Americans are stupid.”