Everyone’s Excited for Shane Gillis on SNL!

The same show that fired Shane Gillis is now asking him to host next Saturday, and fans can’t be more excited! 

Shane Gillis and SNL

In 2019, The award-winning show, Saturday Night Live, announced that Shane Gillis would be joining their line-up along with Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang. Mere hours later, clips resurfaced from Shane Gillis’ own podcast, ‘Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast’, that would lead to him being fired from the show.

The clip involved both Shane and his co-host Matt McCusker making racist remarks regarding Chinese people and Chinatown itself. Gillis’ used racist remarks and even used a stereotypical Chinese accent. That clip was just the start as other videos later came up again where he used sexist and homophobic language.

Gillis became swept under controversy during that time and it didn’t help that the future host of SNL was Simu Liu, a Chinese actor, who openly questioned SNL’s decision to hire Gillis, on Twitter. However, he wasn’t met with zero support, as there was one other comedian who went through the same things he did, the legendary Norm Macdonald, who was also fired and then invited as a host.

Shane’s Thoughts

I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss. If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses… I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said. My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.

Shane said on a now deleted tweet. On top of this on a 2021 Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, he claimed that the creator of SNL, Lorne Michaels, actually didn’t have a problem with him as a cast member, the pushback came from NBC executives. As Shane said,

NBC was in something of a panic… They’re going to boycott these sponsors.

When the announcement came that Shane would not be joining the cast of SNL, he wrote his own statement on X.

I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can’t be taken away. 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. I was always a mad tv guy anyway.”

After Being Fired

A few months after he was fired he came into the podcast ‘The Stand NYC’ and came to talk about how he felt after he was fired.

Everything sucked. I was getting crushed by everybody. And the only good thing is, stand-up’s fun.

On the same podcast he even addressed his apology people felt were insincere.

I genuinely apologized to anybody who got offended. It sounded like I was being a c*nt and I kinda was, I was being a c*nt to the people who I knew were NOT offended at all and were just trying to be.

Being fired turned out to be quite a boost in his career. Comedy icons who were known for pushing the boundaries themselves, Norm Macdonald and Bill Burr, poured out their public support towards Gillis and described it as an “unjust punishment”.

This exposed him to a much larger audience and resulted in a snowball-like effect that propelled his career to new heights. He was already a prominent figure in the podcasting scene, he then gained an audience in the mainstream stand-up comedy industry.

Reactions to Hosting

On Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, a few years before he was announced to be a host. He said that,

If I ever get on SNL, I Will Budd Dwyer (A reference to the American Politician who committed suicide live on TV) Live from my mouth, This F**king Gun.

This quote would soon be reposted over and over again on the comments section of SNL’s promotional material on Youtube. On Instagram however the comments section is a different story as there is still an outpour of backlash regarding Shane’s hosting.

Even the Media Action Network for Asian Americans or MANAA even publicly demanded an apology from Shane Gillis stating that he never genuinely apologized to the Asian Community. You can read more about that HERE!

Some fans theorized that SNL is just desperate for actual comedy as they’ve been criticized for years now as being “unfunny”, Norm Macdonald himself even called the show unfunny when he was fired and then invited as a host.

In just a few hours the long awaited monologue of Shane Gillis on SNL would be released and comedians, fans, and even haters can’t wait! For more comedy updates, check out our site and more on the SNL Shane Gillis situation check out our coverage HERE, but if you’re looking for some amazing live comedy shows, join the fun here at Big Belly Comedy Club!