A lot of A-listers in the past have been offered back their roles or have at least gained back respect after being wrongfully accused of things in the past. However, what is happening with the American comedian, Shane Gillis is completely opposite of that.
Gillis was fired from SNL back in 2019 because of the racist jokes that he had made in the past. But, it seems like the NBC network has decided to give the comedian a second chance as Gillis was recently named the host of the February 24 episode of Saturday Night Live in which 21 Savage will be appearing as the guest.
Why was Shane Gillis fired from Saturday Night Live in 2019?
Shane Gillis was first hired as a cast member for Saturday Night Live along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman back in 2019 but was fired just after 5 days of being on the show. This was because some clips of him saying racist and homophobic slurs started doing rounds on the internet.
In a since-deleted Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast episode, Gillis clearly said some very racist remarks which led to him being fired from SNL. Gillis allegedly made fun of the Chinese people and their accents and even said,
“Chinatown’s f**king nuts…Let the f**king ch*nks live there.”
After his racist remarks started drawing a lot of attention on the internet, SNL decided to fire the comedian. According to Variety, the executive producer of the show, Lorne Michaels even issued a statement at the time about the firing of Gillis which said,
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL. 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 comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. 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.”
Gillis also opened up about the situation later and accepted the authorities’ decision with grace.
Shane Gillis opens up about being fired from SNL
After being fired from SNL, Shane Gillis took to his X(formerly Twitter) account and talked about why he was fired from the show and actually tried explaining his remarks and why he made them in the first place. He said,
“I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss. If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said. My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.
It feels ridiculous for comedians to be making serious public statements but here we are. I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can’t be taken away. Of course I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL, 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 mad tv [sic] guy anyway.”
Source: Instagram
The NBC network recently decided to take it to Instagram and announce Shane Gillis as the host of their 24th February episode. He will be joined by 21 Savage as the guest. However, the fans do not like the decision to rehire Gillis as the host of the show provided his history.
