Saturday Night Live made history last week when the show announced it had hired it’s first gay Asian cast member, Bowen Yang.
But then it completely undid all the progress it had just made by announcing Shane Gillis, who has a long history of using slurs against Asian people and gay people (and other minority groups) in his act, was also hired.
After footage of Gillis calling Chinese people “f*cking ch*nks” and speaking in a stereotypical Asian accent, and bashing “white f*ggot comics” who are “f*cking gayer than ISIS” surfaced online, Gillis put out a statement saying those remarks weren’t meant to be taken seriously.
“I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries,” Gillis said in a statement posted to social media. “I sometimes miss. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said.”
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But many professional comedians aren’t interested in hearing Gillis apologize…
It took 45 years for @SNL to get an East Asian cast member and in that same year he’ll be joined by someone who would have no problem calling him a “fuckin’ chink.”
Gotta be a joke in there somewhere. https://t.co/BB8C4lQU4X— Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) September 13, 2019
As a comic who also "pushes boundaries" part of the deal getting pushback. If you don't want pushback then don't "push boundaries".
Also the boundaries of "jokes" on native Chinese ppl not speaking English well were already pushed by comics when TV's only came in black & white. https://t.co/DBMTB2yAPT
— W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) September 13, 2019
It wasn’t funny then, and it sure as hell isn’t funny today.
This word has been used to dehumanize my people for over 150 years. You don’t get to use it in the name of edgy comedy.
Like the other members of my community I am eagerly awaiting @nbcsnl’s response. pic.twitter.com/oWAl7NuLKK
— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) September 15, 2019
.@Shanemgillis were you or were you not just casually eating a sandwich while voice texting this apology on your iPhone w/ a cracked screen??Where’s the respect?? At least sign the damn thing. Use apology letter font (Times New Roman). I don’t wanna see the lazy process!
— Atsuko Okatsuka (@AtsukoComedy) September 13, 2019
Even Andrew Yang, who is currently running for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president and who Gillis once called a “Jew ch*nk,” got involved, telling him he’d be happy to sit down and explain to him why being racist isn’t funny.
For the record, I do not think he should lose his job. We would benefit from being more forgiving rather than punitive. We are all human.
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 14, 2019
SNL has yet to issue any comment about the controversy. The show’s 45th season kicks off September 28.
Related: Gay comic Bowen Yang joins SNL
Cam
Is anything more tired, than lazy comedians claiming using old racist stereotypes makes them “Edgy”?
They should have just hired Mickey Rooney to redo his Chinese Landlord impression from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.
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Doug
Thank you. They called Lenny Bruce a “genius” for doing this 60 years ago, and so many comedians continue to follow suit. It made a point then… now it’s just boring and kind of nasty.
Kangol2
He also made an anti-Semitic slur too in trashing Andrew Yang, on top of the anti-Asian racist claptrap. This POS should crawl back into his gutter, after SNL does the right thing and sends him packing.
Prax07
Jesus Christ… they’re jokes…GTF over the fake horror and grow a set of balls.
spacecadet
Are they jokes though? Where’s the humor? Making statements with racial slurs that just repeat tired racial stereotypes don’t really qualify as jokes.
Brian
If they’re jokes, shouldn’t there be a punchline? I’m fine with tasteless humor, but it should involve more than just calling Asian people fukn chnks as the “joke”.
Kangol2
If they were racist slurs against white people would you be saying that? I doubt it.
mozzer
Must be white…
DarkZephyr
You tell ’em, Brian! You’re only OK with it when the brunt of the joke is gays and trans folk!
ArtNYC
Apparently you do not know the difference between joke and insult. For Christ’s sake look it up.
zxcv
Nazi
karl schroeder
It gets a bit tiring hearing comedians – usually white straight comedians – claim that they re ‘pushing boundaries’ when they use language that would be regarded as homophobic or racist if the rest of us used it. It is not ‘pushing boundaries’ – it is racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic. I watch plenty of comedians who make me laugh out loud but who never feel the need to attack minority groups. This ‘pushing boundaries’ is BS – it was right that he lost his job and people need to stop making excuses when comedians abuse us and other minority groups.
Donald Dork
Truth is often said in jest.
zxcv
DD: this must be a White Irish thing (racist commentary and all)