It felt like performance art.
He got fired from SNL for reasons
@storrsroars mentioned and now he's back hosting, which is...awkward at best. It almost felt like the band was instructed to never laugh, which, if true, is hilarious direction from Lorne.
Overall, stand up comedians tend to have crappy monologues since most comedians' materials are not suited for network TV.
Overall, I am a Gillis fan though. As a liberal guy with a conservative dad who lives in Pennsyltucky, Gillis has been a bonding point for us since we both appreciate how his material does a nice job having fun with the woke culture as he generally seems like a good guy who is actually hilarious. I'm not a podcast guy, but his stuff with the Matt and Shane secret podcast is pretty funny.