Comedian Who Was Famously Fired from 'SNL' Days After Being Hired Gets Last Laugh Over Cancel Culture
Days after he was hired as a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” in 2019, Shane Gillis was unceremoniously fired because it was found he had once made a racially insensitive comment in a YouTube video and didn’t grovel enough. (As if there’s ever enough groveling.)
Now, Gillis is working — and doing awfully well, as it turns out — as the rest of “Saturday Night Live” is out of work.
Funny how the irony generated by cancel culture, well, works.
So, in case you don’t remember Gillis or haven’t become acquainted with him in the years since — during which he’s become a popular stand-up comic and podcast guest, especially on Joe Rogan’s show — in 2019, the comedian was supposed to be one of three new cast members for the NBC sketch-comedy stalwart, according to entertainment industry outlet Deadline.
Then, a podcast clip surfaced in which Gillis could be heard saying “Chinatown’s f***ing nuts” and “let the f***ing ch***s live there.” No, not exactly defensible stuff, but he immediately apologized. Not that it made any difference, unsurprisingly.
“As backlash against Gillis’ remarks grew and even involved Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, he issued a tepid apology on Instagram on Thursday night, in which he wrote, ‘I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said,’ adding, ‘My intention is never to hurt anyone, but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be, and sometimes that requires risks,'” Deadline reported on Sept. 16, 2019.
That wasn’t enough to appease the mob, and Gillis was fired just as soon as he was hired.
Now, putting aside the relative boost joining “SNL” gives one’s career nowadays — Gillis is arguably the best-known member of that year’s freshman class despite never appearing in a single skit. The guy has gone on to do pretty well for himself, despite the indefensibility of the remarks.
Not only has Gillis blossomed as a stand-up and a podcast regular, he’s also got his own Netflix comedy special. Meanwhile, the “Saturday Night Live” cast and crew are all currently out of work thanks to the writers/actors strike that’s paralyzed the industry.
And, uh, when is that strike going to end? According to one studio exec who talked to Deadline, it’s going to last until “union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”
Meanwhile, I’m sure the “SNL” cast and crew can cheer themselves up with this clip of Gillis talking about the virtues (or the relatively nonexistent ones, anyway) of Australia from his Netflix special, “Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs.”
Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs streaming NOW pic.twitter.com/s1U4dvSg6A
— Netflix Is A Joke (@NetflixIsAJoke) September 5, 2023
And, if they can still afford their Netflix subscription (times are tough, you know), entertainment outlet Decider — not a hive of right-wing thought, it’s worth noting — says the whole thing is worth a watch.
“It may have been all too easy to dismiss Gillis in 2019 when the media jumped on his impromptu podcast remarks for using a racial slur,” their review, published Tuesday, read.
“Even now that he’s established himself as a national headliner, Gillis knows he has work to do to win over certain demographics. ‘I understand most of the women here are girlfriends that were dragged to this show, that already don’t really like me, ‘cause every time they’re in their car their boyfriends are like, “Babe, listen to this part of the podcast,’” he says. ‘I’m aware.'”
However, the review noted he managed to turn his cancellation into its own form of self-aware humor.
“Whenever he makes jokes about race (such as his suggestion that white Americans stopped being cool when they first saw Jackie Robinson play for the Dodgers), or calls anything ‘gay’ or ‘retarded,’ he’s quick with a smile and an acknowledgement that he knows he’s transgressing,” the reviewer noted.
“He has the self-awareness to play both sides of the aisle, as it were. At one point, he mocks his love of history as a sign of ‘early onset Republican’ — tagging it with a roast of dads and older white guys making too much of a fuss over little things.”
Instead, the guy “presents as a grinning, somehow lovable oaf. But he’s no dummy. Gillis knows exactly what he’s doing onstage.”
“Since ‘SNL’ isn’t back to work yet anyhow, it might be a fun thought experiment to watch Gillis as a stand-up and imagine how he would’ve fared had he stuck as a cast member,” the review concluded. “He certainly doesn’t seem like he needs the show now.”
Well, no one does, which is kind of the point.
Comedy is where cancel culture goes to die. If you’re an ExxonMobil exec and you get yourself into some sort of kerfuffle over what’s perceived as an insensitive remark about igloos, no matter how effective you might be in your role, you’re going to have to appease the self-appointed DEI demigods with a performative show of servile abasement — and even at that, there’s basically a coinflip’s chance you’ll still have a career.
Humor, however, can’t be turned into Hannah Gadsby lectures. It doesn’t work. The audience may be clapping along with your reiteration of the beliefs the media has told them they’re supposed to hold, but they cannot be forced to laugh.
Actual comedy requires the freedom to take risks and to savage social norms. This doesn’t mean one should be deliberately offensive, of course — and not just because no one laughs at that, either.
But then, no one laughs at “Saturday Night Live” these days anyway, whether the cast and crew is working or not.
The show is nothing but a weekly regurgitation of what half of America believes — along with a musical guest that may or may not be good. And yes, it’s been that way for a while, but the diminishing comic returns have become dangerously steep these last couple of years. It turns out that Shane Gillis’ offensive remarks and “tepid apology” saved him from broadcast purgatory.
Four years after his hiring and firing, the joke’s on “SNL” instead.
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