Shane Gillis tapped to host SNL after being fired for "hurtful, unacceptable language"
Comedian Shane Gillis was fired from Saturday Night LIve in 2019 for using racist and homophobic language online; now he'll be hosting the show
In what we can only assume is some sort of ongoing campaign to get Bowen Yang to distance himself so far from the weekly goodnights that they turn into a Where’s Waldo? puzzle, Saturday Night Live has announced that it’s tapping comedian Shane Gillis to be its next guest host. Which is interesting, in so far as Gillis is most famous, to a lot of people, for being the record holder for what might be the single shortest cast member tenure in all of SNL history, after he was fired from the series in 2019, just four days after being brought on, after multiple instances of him using racist and homophobic language were resurfaced online.
Since then, Gillis has continued to work steadily as a comedian, including releasing a comedy special with Netflix in 2022. (He also appeared on a number of podcasts that prominently feature the word “cancelled” in their marketing, natch, as well as making several appearances on Joe Rogan’s show, also natch.) Hired alongside Yang and Chloe Fineman (both still with the show), Gillis joins the very small and select number of people who’ve been fired from Saturday Night Live, only to be invited to host several years later.
News of the decision to bring Gillis on comes in the immediate aftermath of another controversy, when SNL brought Dave Chappelle out for the goodnights on its January 27th installment, provoking visible unhappiness from both Yang and castmate Sarah Sherman. (Presumably thanks to Chappelle’s nigh-fanatical, increasingly career-eclipsing dedication to telling trans people he’s not a transphobe, no matter how many transphobic things he says.)
For his part, Gillis has said in interviews that the podcast segments featuring him using racist and homophobic slurs were taken out of context. (A representative for the series, meanwhile, described them as “offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable” when announcing his firing.) Gillis will host the show’s February 24th installment, with 21 Savage as the musical guest.