According to Hollywood Reporter, comedian Shane Gillis has been axed from the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live after social media posts of him using racial and homophobic slurs during a conversation on a podcast went public.
Just last week, Gillis was named one of the newest cast members of "Saturday Night Live," when videos showing him making racist, sexist and homophobic remarks immediately went viral. Now, Gillis is attempting to apologize for the comments as fans call for him to be fired.
pic.twitter.com/fw7QJHLFdi
— Shane Gillis (@Shanemgillis)
September 13, 2019 "After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL," said a show spokesperson on behalf of executive producer Lorne Michaels. "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. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard."
NBC announced Gillis, Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang as the newest SNL cast members Thursday. Just hours later, a video went viral on Twitter in which Gillis mocks Chinese people, using several racial slurs during an episode of his podcast last year.
In a now-deleted YouTube video, Gillis and his co-host, Matt McCusker, shared a slew of racist "jokes" against Chinese-Americans, mocking their accents and culture. The page for "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast" is now completely devoid of content.
today SNL announced the hiring of its first cast member of East Asian descent, and also this guy pic.twitter.com/0FAGJZJUkK
— Seth Simons (@sasimons)
September 12, 2019 this, again, is from September 2018 pic.twitter.com/inYFT22zjl
— Seth Simons (@sasimons)
September 12, 2019 "Let the f---ing ch---- live there," Gillis said, referring to New York City's Chinatown neighborhood. The two go on to mock Chinatown's architecture and food, complaining extensively about MSG and calling noodles, "nooders."
In the same video, Gillis and McCusker joke about going to Thailand to "party with ladyboys" and complain about other ethnicities being racist against white people.
In another podcast episode, the duo rank comedians by race, gender and sexuality. They repeatedly make sexist and racist remarks and use homophobic slurs throughout.
"White chicks are literally the bottom," Gillis said. "Ali Wong is making it so Asian chicks are funnier than white chicks."
Gillis, Fineman and Yang were named to SNL for the show's 45th season, which begins at the end of the month. Yang, who started writing for the show last year, is openly gay and the show's first Chinese-American cast member.
Gillis is facing massive backlash on Twitter, and people are calling on NBC to replace him.
If you’re a comic & you think calling Chinese ppl chinks is funny, you’re a hack AND a racist. Oh, & you’re going to make fun of Chinese accents by replacing Ls w/ Rs? For every untalented Shane Gillis there are hundreds of talented Bowen Yangs who have had to fight tooth & nail https://t.co/ptiqm9eboG
— Cindy Pika Chu (@iamcindychu)
September 13, 2019
