Shane Gillis, a stand-up comedian known for pushing boundaries, experienced a meteoric rise and fall with “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 2019. Just days after being announced as a new cast member for season 45, Gillis was abruptly fired before even appearing on the show. This dramatic turn of events left many wondering: Why Did Shane Gillis Get Fired From Snl? The answer lies in the resurfacing of past controversial remarks that ignited a firestorm of criticism.
Shane Gillis stand-up special on YouTube
The initial announcement of Gillis joining SNL alongside Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, the show’s first Asian American cast member, seemed like a promising step towards diversifying the comedy giant. However, the excitement was short-lived. Almost immediately after the casting news broke, clips from Gillis’s podcast, “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast,” began circulating widely on social media, particularly on Twitter. These clips contained deeply offensive language, including racist and homophobic slurs, triggering immediate and intense backlash.
The most damaging clip featured Gillis using an anti-Asian slur during a podcast episode while discussing Chinatown with his co-host, Matt McCusker. In the clip, Gillis used a derogatory term and mocked Chinese accents, employing the word “nooders” instead of “noodles.” This specific instance of hate speech, coupled with other unearthed offensive jokes, painted a picture of a comedian whose humor relied on harmful stereotypes and prejudice.
