Shane Gillis joked about being fired saturday night live in the opening monologue of this weekend’s episode.
The 36-year-old comedian was hired by SNL He was appointed in 2019 but was fired just days later after a podcast clip using racist language resurfaced online.
However, Gillis was chosen to host Saturday night’s (February 24) episode, along with musical guest 21 Savage.
At the beginning of his introductory monologue, Gillis alluded to the scandal, telling the audience: I’m here…probably most people don’t know who I am.
“I was fired from this show a while ago. But… don’t look that up. Please. If you don’t know who I am, don’t Google it. It’s okay.” No need to worry,” he joked.
Gillis struggled to captivate the studio audience through monologues, performing short stand-up routines that covered subjects such as Down syndrome and his father, who was present.
“My dad is there, he’s a volunteer assistant girls high school basketball coach,” he said. “I thought that was weird. Don’t you think it’s weird to bring my dad here and make fun of him for being a women’s basketball coach?
“I thought it was great. Whatever. I thought it would be a big hit here.”
Gillis was hired as part of the cast of SNL He appeared in September 2019, but was met with protests due to the comedian’s history of racist and homophobic jokes.
“After discussions with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not participate.” SNL” a spokesperson for the popular sketch series said at the time.
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“We want SNL to have a variety of voices and perspectives on our show, and we hired Shane because of his talent as a comedian and his great audition for SNL.
Shane Gillis appears on “Saturday Night Live”
(NBC)
“We were not aware of his previous comments that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We wish we had seen these clips sooner. We regret that this was not the case and that the review process did not meet our standards.”
Meanwhile, Gillis responded to his firing at the time on social media, saying his presence on the show would be “distracting.”
“I’m a pretty funny comedian. SNL. Nothing can take that away,” he wrote. “Of course I wanted a chance to prove myself. SNLbut I understand that it’s too distracting.
“I respect the decision they made. I honestly appreciate the opportunity.”
Since then, Gillis has enjoyed a successful career as a touring stand-up and last year starred in his first Netflix special, beautiful dogs.
