Comedian Shane Gillis’ racist and homophobic not-so-distant past has finally caught up with him.
Last week, SNL announced Gillis would be joining the cast of the show’s 45th season, which premieres September 28. Then 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 quickly issued a non-apology, saying he was just joking and that his remarks were never meant to be taken seriously.
“I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries,” Gillis said on Twitter. “I sometimes miss. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said.”
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Then yesterday, SNL announced Gillis wouldn’t be joining the cast, after all.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” the NBC show said in a statement. “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 for SNL.”
Related: ‘SNL’ fires new cast member Shane Gillis over racist, homophobic comments
The statement continued: “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.”
Shortly after that, Gillis responded by putting out another childish statement on Twitter, saying he thinks it’s “ridiculous” he has to say anything regarding his past racism and homophobia and adding that he always preferred MadTV over SNL anyway.
“I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get on SNL,” he quipped. “That can’t be taken away.”
Um, except that it was.
— Shane Gillis (@Shanemgillis) September 16, 2019
The responses to Gillis’ firing and his ensuing temper tantrum on Twitter have been mixed.
Some are throwing their full-fledged support behind Gillis:
Hey @Shanemgillis fuck @nbcsnl and everything they hold near and dear to their little pc hearts. It’s a sinking ship anyway. You’re gonna be just fine. Keep your chin ( no pun intended) up!#fucknbc
— Nick DiPaolo (@NickDiPaolo) September 17, 2019
Shane Gillis is gonna have a sold-out bro tour and a million dollar payday Netflix special about how he is a brave truthteller silenced by cancel culture called Saturday Night Dead within the year, bet on it.
— Catherynne Valente (@catvalente) September 17, 2019
I mean they canceled straws. Shane Gillis didn’t have a chance.
— JohnMoses (@JohnMoses) September 17, 2019
What happened to Shane Gillis fucking sucks
It's funny to say fucked up things you don't believe
I'm Jewish, and I've heard plenty of comedians deny the Holocaust
They shouldn't be fired… but I would like to know how the gentiles found out we made that shit up
— Matt Maran (@REALMattMaran) September 17, 2019
If you support comedy you will support @Shanemgillis. Sign up for Matt and Shane’s Patreon. Buy tickets to his shows. Make him into a legend. #fucksnl
— Luis J. Gomez (@luisjgomez) September 16, 2019
Many more, however, think SNL did the right thing by letting him go:
I am never one to celebrate or take joy over the misfortune of others, but Shane Gillis refused to show remorse for what was very evidently hate speech.
I’m glad @nbcSNL acted with authority and moral fibre.
Now let’s get back to congratulating @bowenyang and @chloefineman!! https://t.co/88YQjG0Cnf
— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) September 17, 2019
shane gillis defenders tweeting like being an snl cast member is a human right
— goth mothra (@acechhh) September 17, 2019
Racist trolls are extremely mad #ShaneGillis got fired. It wasn't a joke, it was a racist statement like others he's made before. The guy isn't edgy/pushing boundaries, he just sucks. P.S. MADtv was cancelled because it sucked too
— Max The Bear (@MaxDAWerePanda) September 17, 2019
Still waiting for someone outside of 40-year-old white guy stand-up to be mad about Shane Gillis
— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) September 17, 2019
It's funny because at least Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart had to work to become household names before people would defend their right to be offensive. Shane Gillis getting the same treatment and most of us just heard of that white man last week.
White privilege at work.
— M’BlockU (@rodimusprime) September 17, 2019
Just to be clear, Shane Gillis was fired because he couldn’t be bothered to even appear sincere while apologizing for using racial slurs, not just the slurs themselves.
Stop crying about cancel culture, he was give a chance and he blew it.
— Frankie Huang ? (@ourobororoboruo) September 17, 2019
Shane Gillis saying he was always more of a MAD TV guy, after getting fired by SNL is the funniest joke he ever told. And it's an approach I'm gonna take at the car dealership. When I get turned down for a loan on a Maserati, I'm gonna shrug, cuz I was always more of a Toyota guy
— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) September 17, 2019
Ok comedians, you can make your offensive jokes, it’s your right, but maybe it just ain’t what the people want anymore?? ???? #ShaneGillis
— Jane (@pootydoods) September 17, 2019
Shane Gillis’ comment of saying that he’s always been more of a Mad TV guy feels like the comic’s version of “you can’t fire me ‘cause I quit” #ShaneGillis
— Meredith (@meralee727) September 16, 2019
Shane Gillis got fired from SNL pic.twitter.com/pFXSvI9ggO
— ???? ¨? (@artroan_) September 16, 2019
And then there was this guy:
Shane Gillis is ruining the good name of people with very similar names.
— Shane Gill (@_ShaneGill_) September 17, 2019
Related: Comedians to Shane Gillis: Your racism and homophobia isn’t cute or groundbreaking
Cam
Waaaaaa!!! Right wingers once again screaming that racism and bigotry may impact their lives.
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wikidBSTN
Gillis says he’s happy to issue an apology to anyone he offends – which just tells me he really doesn’t care and doesn’t consider an “apology” anything more than a bunch of words strung together to get him past criticism. Dick.
Dannyzackery
So we are to discriminate him as revenge. Wow. We are becoming more and more nazi like.
UlfRaynor
So Dannyzachery, you’d be just fine with the KKK burning crosses on your front lawn?
Cam
@Dannyzackery
Oh look, another right wing troll account claiming that pointing out bigotry is “Discrimination”.
bobbyjoe
Thing is, if you hear what his “jokes” actually were, it’s like the laziest thing ever; there wasn’t anything attempting to be edgy or transgressive, it was just stuff pretty much like “I hate chinese restaurants [throws out racial slur], dur hurr hurrr.” Maybe even worse than SNL being so lame at vetting their hires that they supposedly didn’t discover this kind of easily discoverable stuff from his past is the fact that they somehow found this guy’s lame and lazy routines funny in the first place. SNL may as well have just hired somebody’s boring 75 year old uncle for his stupid bigoted jokes around the Thanksgiving table.
mr guy
Epic temper tantrum..where? Just print the bloody facts and stop editorialising as if we are children unable to come to the “correct” opinion without a little help
jw8890
I completely agree there was no tantrum. It’s just people trying to stir the pot
eeebee333
My thoughts exactly.
Doug
Why does Queerty need to exaggerate the headlines of so many of their articles?
Heywood Jablowme
“Gayer than ISIS”?
dinard38
Yeah. That made no sense and is so lame.
azianboy
Never heard of this Gillis dude. So hes White but he looks more Chinese than me, im half pinoy-chinese btw. How could he??
shanfrina
… Doesn’t this Dope know Lorne Michaels is Gay?!? Dumb Irish Shit. Still a Nobody, who doesn’t count. TTFN Gurl!!!
Rock-N-RollHS
Michaels Gay??? News to the rest of the world. Get your news from the rumor mill, I see.
Cam
Another lazy comedian claiming that recycling old racism is “Edgy”.
Another opportunity for the right wing to scream and yell that not being allowed to be openly racist makes them victims.
joseph_buscarino
I barely know who this guy is, and definitely won’t lose any sleep about him getting fired or not hired.
Since when is it discrimination for people to be held accountable for what they do and say? Sure freedom of speech, not freedom of consequence. Say what you want, but don’t go crying when someone actually calls you out for being an unfunny bigot.
RandomGuy
Nick DiPaolo is such a racist, homophobic, misogynist, right-wing piece of shit that even most other comics hate him so it’s no surprise he came to this idiot’s defense.
crumbledcookie
Shame they had to add an obviously sarcastic tweet by Cat Valente, when she clearly doesn’t support him. Pretty sure they could have found something from Bill Burr or Rob Schneider.
MHaumesser
I have no idea who this guy is so I’m not sure why they are making such a fuss about him. That being said if this guy doesn’t know how to be funny unless he’s say something racist or homophobic then maybe he’s not as good a comedian as he thinks he is.
djmcgamester
I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to the likes of… Eddie Murphy, Gene Wilder (Blazing Saddles, anyone?), George Carlin… I could go on.
Cam
You had to go back 3 decades. But nice try.
djmcgamester
@Cam: No, not “nice try”. People whine and complain about the same things that have always been happening. Yes, three decades ago those comedians were putting out the most outrageous and offensive material possible. People loved it. Today? Waah…mommy, he hurt my feelings.
Kangol2
OK, so when someone starts making stupid, racist jokes about White people you’re going to just say, Hey, cool, let’s hear some more, right? Can’t be PC, right?
Toofie
Again, he’s just not funny.
sanfranca1
Umm…where is the “epic temper tantrum” ?
Brian
They cut it short here. He made several statements that weren’t apologies. He sort of spiraled, and very publicly.
Kangol2
He’s a hideous, racist moron who isn’t funny, he didn’t apologize, and he had a freakout online, which Queerty didn’t really show, so good riddance.
ShowMeGuy
Meanwhile, Trump is ready to start a war; and kill American, to benefit Saudi Arabia.
Stay distracted by the bread and circus.
crumbledcookie
Catherynne Valente was being mockingly sarcastic. If you follow her at all you’d know she wouldn’t be supporting Gillis.