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Shane Gillis Won't Be Joining 'SNL' After Racist, Homophobic 'Jokes'

"The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable," a Saturday Night Live spokesperson said.

Raffy Ermac

Digital Director, Out.com

Raffy is a Los Angeles-based writer, editor, video creator, critic, and digital director of Out Magazine. The former editor-in-chief of PRIDE, he is also a die-hard Rihanna and Sailor Moon stan who loves to write about all things pop culture, entertainment, and identities. Follow him on Instagram (@raffyermac) and Twitter (@byraffy), and subscribe to his YouTube channel.

Read Full Bio

Raffy Ermac

byraffy

September 16 2019 4:30 PM EST

December 09 2022 9:12 AM EST

It looks like Shane Gillis won't be joining the cast of Saturday Night Live after all.

"After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL," a spokesperson for NBC's weekly sketch comedy show said in a statement reported by The Hollywood Reporter 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 comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days."

The statement continued:

"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."

The news of Gillis' dismissal from the show comes on the heels of last week's controversy when racist and homophobic "jokes" he made on a podcast last year srufaced online. In a podcast he used to co-host with a man named Matt McCusker, Gillis can be heard calling Chinese people "chinks," gay people "f****ts," and transgender women "ladyboys."

None
— nat towsen (@nat towsen) 1568323292

Gillis tried to apologize online, but as PRIDE's own Rachel Kiley pointed out, the apology failed miserably and wasn't very genuine, and unfortunately, the entire situation overshadowed what should have been a great moment for queer, East Asian representation when SNL also decided to cast openly-gay comedian Bowen Yang on the show.