Saturday Night Live fires comic Shane Gillis after outcry over anti-Chinese slurs
- Spokesperson says language used by comedian was ‘offensive, hurtful and unacceptable’ and apologises for vetting process being ‘not up to our standard’
- In 2018 podcast, Gillis mocked Chinese accents and made racist references to Chinatown
Saturday Night Live has parted ways with Shane Gillis, the newly hired stand-up comic whose past use of racist, homophobic and sexist language led to a firestorm last week.
The comedian, who was announced on Thursday as a featured player for Season 45, was criticised for using slurs against Asians and the LGBT community in recent podcast episodes.
A spokesperson for SNL producer Lorne Michaels confirmed the development on Monday, saying in a statement that after speaking with Gillis, “we have decided he will not be joining SNL”.
“We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days,” reads the statement. “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 wrote on Twitter that “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.”
Hours after SNL announced his casting news, freelance comedy journalist Seth Simons called attention to a 2018 “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” episode in which Gillis and co-host Matt McCusker used slurs against Chinese people, mocking their accents and making racist references to Chinatown.
Though many of the episodes have since scrubbed from the internet, they were widely available ahead of the mounting backlash on Thursday.
Vice reported on Friday night that Gillis had used an antisemitic and racist slur to describe Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang in May while appearing as a guest on another podcast.
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“I prefer comedy that makes people think and doesn’t take cheap shots,” the entrepreneur responded on Twitter, but said he did not think Gillis should lose his newly announced SNL job over the remark.
Gillis initially addressed the backlash last week by tweeting that he is a “comedian who pushes boundaries. Sometimes I miss.” He added he was “happy to apologise to anyone who’s actually been offended by anything I’ve said”.
The controversy raised questions about SNL’s hiring process, and came amid a broader conversation about “cancel culture” within comedy.
SNL had hired Gillis along with Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, who was widely celebrated as the show’s first cast member of East Asian descent.
“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,” the spokesperson for Michaels said Monday.
