Shane Gillis addresses “SNL” firing in monologue: 'I probably shouldn't be up here honestly'
Gillis was fired from the "Saturday Night Live" cast before his first episode in 2019 after clips surfaced of him using racist and homophobic slurs on his podcast.
Comedian Shane Gillis addressed being fired from the Saturday Night Live cast during his monologue after being asked back to host Saturday night.
"Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm here," Gillis told the crowd in his controversial appearance at Studio 8H. "Most of you probably have no idea who I am. I was fired from this show a while ago. Don't look that up, please. Please don't Google that. It's fine. Don't even worry about it. I probably shouldn't be up here honestly. I should be at home. I should be a high school football coach."
It was first announced Gillis was joining the SNL cast back in September 2019 — alongside fellow season 45 incoming featured players Chloe Fineman and then-writer Bowen Yang, who became the show's first Chinese American cast member. But Gillis was fired just four days later before his first episode after recordings surfaced of him using racist, including anti-Chinese, and homophobic slurs on his podcast.
NBC
Shane Gillis hosts 'SNL'When announcing Gillis' firing at the time, SNL apologized for not being aware of his prior "offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable" remarks and admitted the "vetting process was not up to our standard." Gillis released his own statement afterward, in which he did not apologize for using the slurs and took a jab at the long-running sketch series, saying "I was always a Mad TV guy anyway." So it came as a surprise to many fans when the comic was invited to host the show.
The comedian previously said on his podcast that if he ever did get on SNL, he would kill himself onstage: "I'll be like, 'Live from my mouth, this f---ing gun.'"
Thankfully, that did not happen during Saturday's live monologue, which clocked in at a whopping eight minutes. Instead, Gillis, whose parents were in the audience, launched into bits from his "anti-woke" stand-up routine, including jokes about his dad being a girls' high school basketball coach, little boys being their "mom's gay best friend," and his family members who have Down syndrome ("I dodged it").
"Look, I don't have any material that can be on TV, alright?" he told the crowd. "I'm trying my best. Also, this place is extremely well lit. I can see everyone not enjoying it. This is the most nervous I've ever been."
Watch Gillis' monologue above.
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