New ‘SNL’ Cast Member Shane Gillis Uses Racial Slur in Resurfaced Video

Will Thorne
Updated

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Shane Gillis, one of three new “SNL” cast members announced Thursday morning, can be seen using a racial slur in a resurfaced video posted to a YouTube channel called Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast.

“Chinatown’s f—ing nuts,” Gillis says to comedian Matt McCusker in a segment of the longer YouTube video, which has been deleted. “Let the f—ing ch-nks live there.”

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The video was brought to Variety‘s attention by Seth Simons, a freelance writer and editor who covers comedy and posted a clip of the footage on Twitter. Later in the video, which dates from Sept. 26, 2018, Gillis talks about going to Chinese restaurants.

“The translation between you and the waiter is such a f—ing hassle, I’m pointing at it,” he says.

The video appears to be from a podcast recording of Gillis’ two-man show, which airs on the Bonfire on Sirius XM. According to Gillis’ website, the “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” is available on iTunes.

During the same podcast recording, Gillis comments that their conversation is “nice racism, good racism.”

Representatives for Gillis and NBC did not immediately reply to Variety‘s request for comment.

Gillis was unveiled alongside Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, the first full-time cast member of East Asian descent, Thursday morning as joining the long-running NBC sketch comedy series. He was recently recognized as a New Face at the 2019 Just for Laughs Festival.

News of the new cast members comes approximately two weeks after it was announced that Leslie Jones would be exiting the series after five seasons. It had been speculated at that time that Kate McKinnon would also be leaving the show, but she is poised to return when “SNL” begins its new season on Sept. 28 with host Woody Harrelson and musical guest Billie Eilish.

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