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Courtesy of NBC
Comedian Shane Gillis has returned to host “SNL” after being fired from the cast in 2019 for making racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments.
During the February 24 episode, Gillis didn’t shy away from the elephant in the room, briefly acknowledging her firing in her opening monologue.
“I’m here,” he said. “Most of you probably have no idea who I am. I was actually fired from this show a while ago. But you know, don’t look for that, please. If you don’t know who I am, don’t Google that. Alright. Don’t even worry about it.”
Gillis was fired from the show just a week after it was announced that he would be joining the SNL cast. A statement was issued on behalf of veteran executive producer Lorne Michaels addressing the situation: “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 talents as a comedian and your Awesome audition for ‘SNL’. We were not aware of your previous comments that have surfaced in recent days. The language you used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry we did not see these clips sooner and that our vetting process did not lived up to our standards.”
Gillis also commented on his firing on social media: “It seems ridiculous for comedians to make serious public statements, but here we are. I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. They can’t take that away. Of course I wanted the opportunity to prove myself on SNL, but I understand that it would be a huge distraction. I respect the decision they made. I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity. Anyway, I was always a crazy TV guy (sic).”
Since his firing in 2019, Gillis has co-hosted the popular podcast “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” and landed a Netflix comedy special “Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs,” which premiered in 2023.