Shane Gillis Won't Be Joining Saturday Night Live After All
Last Friday, most of the Internet was talking about new Saturday Night Live cast member Shane Gillis&aposs easily-searchable and very recent history of offensive behavior and remarks. The Philadelphia comedian was found to have used racial slurs as recently as this year, as well as a documented pattern of material and comments that made others uncomfortable. After remaining silent for several days, SNL finally released a statement late on Monday afternoon, revealing that Gillis would not be joining the show, after all.
Since Thursday night, when the news first broke, it seemed like a matter of time until SNL would reverse its decision to hire Gillis, who was set to join two other new cast members, Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang. And that&aposs just what the show has now done after a stay of execution for Gillis over the weekend. The full statement is below:
After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL.
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 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
For his part, Gillis quickly responded with another pithy notes-app-screenshot statement, which ably whiplashed between humble understanding and a quick shot at his very brief employer:
It should go without saying, but Gillis remains a popular, profitable comedian who has under no definition been "canceled." If history is any indication, he stands to gain from his notoriety, if anything.
Originally Appeared on GQ
