After days of silence on the matter,SaturdayNight Livehas officially firedShane Gillisfrom the season 45 cast afterracist, misogynist, and homophobic comments made by the comedianas recently as 2018 surfaced mere hours after he was announced as a new cast member.SNL’s decision to fire Gillis comes after his resurfaced comments spread like wildfire across social media, sparking outrage from people of color — especially the Asian and Asian-American community, who were Gillis' primary targets — on the dangerous precedent his hiring would set in he was allowed to remain in the cast and thus implicitly gettingSNL’s support.
Gillis' firing was addressed in a statement released via anSNLspokesperson on behalf of showrunnerLorne MichaelsviaVariety:
After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joiningSNL. We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as a comedian and his impressive audition forSNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard."
Followingthe half-baked apology(in this writer’s personal opinion) released in the immediate wake of the public’s concern on his comments, Gillis tweeted out the following on Monday in regards to his firing.
“It feels ridiculous for comedians to be making serious public statements but here we are. I’m a comedian who was funny enough to getSNL. That can’t be taken away. Of course, I wanted an opportunity to prove myself atSNL, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction. I respect the decision they made. I’m honestly grateful for the opportunity. I was always a [MADtv] guy anyway.”
WriterSeth Simonswas the first person to alert the public to obscenely racist remarks made by Gillis on his podcast,Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, back in 2018. Gillis used racial slurs and a racist accent during a conversation with podcast co-hostMatt McCusker. If you are so inclined, you can listen to Gillis' comments in the tweet below:
Of course, racism wasn’t Gillis' only preferred hot topic; he also expressed homophobic and misogynist opinions, too. In a May 2019 (yes,2019)podcast episode, Gillis and McCusker called confessional comedians likeJudd ApatowandChris Gethard"fucking gayer than ISIS." As if that wasn’t enough, Gillis is also heard on the “Ep 146 – Live from Shane’s Parent’s Basement” podcast episode discussing the Battle of Gettysburg and fires off both ableist and homophobic slurs as well as calling women who disguised themselves as men to fight in the battle “flat-chested fucking bitches.” All episodes of these podcasts have been erased with clips preserved for posterity from other sources.
In aVultureround-up of Gillis' remarks, those in the Philadelphia comedy scene where the comedian got his start expressed surprise he was joiningSNL, especially because he has a history of regularly spouting racist jokes:
“‘Good Good Comedy Theatre stopped working with him within the past few years because of racist, homophobic, and sexist things he’s said on and offstage,’ said Kate Banford, co-owner of the comedy theater.”
Gillis was one of three comedians hired to join the season 45 cast following veteranLeslie Jones' departure. In addition to Gillis, veteranSNLwriterBowen YangandChloe Finemanwere announced as the newcomers. It’s unclear ifSNLhas any intentions of hiring a third newbie to fill Gillis' now-vacated spot. All that matters is thatSNLhas seen reason and prevented themselves from becoming truly fucked by allowing Gillis to remain on their payroll.
