Monday, September 16, 2019

Comedian Shane Gillis Fired From 'Saturday Night Live' Over Past Racist Remarks


I'm guess I'm fine with "Saturday Night Live" axing Shane Gillis before he even started over past racist remarks that cropped up after the show announced it was hiring him. But it's probably worth noting that many other comedians would probably also not be "not ready for prime time," including Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Kevin Hart, Tracy Morgan, Ricky Gervais, Joan Rivers, Chelsea Handler, Michael Richards, Norm MacDonald, Trevor Noah, Sandra Bernhard, Amy Schumer, Lisa Lampanelli, David Cross, Bill Maher and so on.
"After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL," a spokesperson on behalf of SNL creator Lorne Michaels said. "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 a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL." The spokesperson added, "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."
The Wall Street Journal reports that Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang joined the online discussion about the “SNL”'s new hire with an offer to discuss it in person with Gillis. “I prefer comedy that makes people think and doesn’t take cheap shots. But I’m happy to sit down and talk with you if you’d like," Yang wrote on Twitter, adding that he did not think Gillis should be fired from “SNL.”

Thoughts?

3 comments:

demc7 said...

during all this- I've watched a few of the clips- he's not funny, unlike most of the people you named....He can probably get his own show on Fox News now.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@demc7: Yeah, I have heard several people mention his lack of talent. But humor is subjective and SNL seemed to think he was funny enough to hire — so what are we to make of that?

jaragon said...

SNL has not been funny in years