(CelebrityAccess) — Saturday Night Live on Monday announced it was parting ways with comedian Shane Gillis after videos surfaced that appeared to show him making overtly racist jokes.
“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 a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL,” the NBC show said in a statement to the Daily Beast on Monday.
“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 voting process was not up to our standard,” NBC added.
Gillis, along with Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, was one of three new cast members announced for upcoming 45th season of the long-running late-night sketch show last week.
However, almost immediately, multiple videos surfaced of Gillis making racist and sexist, including during an appearance on a September 2018 episode of “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast,” which featured Gillis making disparaging remarks about Asians.
“Damn, Chinatown is fucking nuts,” Gillis says surfaced video, adding, “Let the fucking chinks live there.”
Gillis initially tried to apologize for the remarks, noting that he would “apologize to anyone who was actually offended,” but added that such comments are part of his comedic process and “pushing boundaries” sometimes requires risk.
Following news of his exit, Gillis posted a message to his Twitter account addressing the matter.
— Shane Gillis (@Shanemgillis) September 16, 2019
