Why Shane Gillis Was Fired From SNL & His Hosting Announcement Backlash, Explained
Shane Gillis has had quite the unusual path back to "Saturday Night Live." A cast member on the program for only a single week in 2019, Gillis was summarily fired from the show before he could make a single appearance as a regular when a clip from his podcast — "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast" – went viral on Twitter (now known as X). The moment featured Gillis making anti-Asian slurs while talking about his experience visiting Chinatown. Further clips of his work — featuring him making sexist, homophobic, ableist, and Islamophobic statements — also surfaced.
This resulted in Gillis being removed from the show's cast. "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.' 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," a spokesperson working on behalf of Lorne Michaels said at the time. Gillis, too, made a statement expressing his pride in being selected for the show's cast on his social media. "I was always a mad tv [sic] guy anyway," his statement concluded.
In the time since Gillis was removed from "Saturday Night Live," he has launched a successful Netflix comedy special, launched the sketch comedy show "Gilly & Keeves," and "Matt And Shane's Secret Podcast" has become the most subscribed to podcast on Patreon. That pathway has led him back to "SNL," which he will host on February 24. Has he shown any remorse for his words since his firing? And how are audiences reacting to his hosting announcement? It's a mixed bag.
Shane Gillis understood the consequences, but felt the reaction to his remarks were extreme
In subsequent appearances on the "Joe Rogan Experience" and the "Bussin' with the Boys" podcast, Gillis has further explained his feelings about being fired from "Saturday Night Live."
"I'm not saying I shouldn't have been fired. I've never denied that," Gillis said on "Bussin' with the Boys," with a 'but' added on as a caveat. He also admitted that NBC tried to write his apology note, but he refused to use it and created his own, which he admitted was not his best work. He also said "SNL" was trying to keep him on the show, but the uproar didn't go away, and he knew he was going to be fired; he was also aware that worse material from previous podcasts could resurface. "I wasn't even angry, I was like 'this is f*****g insane,'" he said. He repeated as much to Joe Rogan, but added that after the controversy broke, he found himself reading comment after comment online about his behavior even though friends and family encouraged him not to.
While fans of Gillis seem to be excited by his appearance, judging by the Instagram announcement detailing his appearance on the official "SNL" Instagram, and reactions on various subreddits, many other viewers have been less than positive. "You have an endless list of people to host and you chose him?" one fan wrote on Instagram. "This is just yikes but also why is "SNL" incapable of consistently booking A List talent anymore? To go from an Emmy winner to... whoever this man is," wrote one Redditor. Whether Gillis is a comedian who went too far or just a misunderstood funnyman, "Saturday Night Live" is a part of his destiny for better or for worse.