Without a single trace of irony or hyperbole: getting the axe from Saturday Night Live (SNL) was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to Shane Gillis.
Days after he was announced as one of the new Not Ready For Prime Time Players alongside Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, the comedian was shown the door after controversial jokes from his podcast Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast surfaced.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” creator and producer Lorne Michaels expressed via statement.
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“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. 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.”
Gillis did, of course, promptly apologise before publicly responding to Michaels with a statement of his own: “It feels ridiculous for comedians to be making serious public statements but here we are. I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can’t be taken away.”
“Of course, I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction.”
“I respect the decision they made. I’m honestly grateful for the opportunity. I was always a Mad TV guy anyway.”
Since then, free from what could’ve potentially been a creatively stifling working environment over at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Shane Gillis has cemented himself as one of the best working comedians of our time.
Between touring with fellow cancelled comic Louis CK, raking in major Patreon dollars, and releasing two of the greatest comedy specials of the past few years — Live In Austin (available to stream free on YouTube; see above) and Netflix’s Beautiful Dogs — the West Point dropout has been thriving without having to sacrifice his blue-collared persona.
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This month, the “Gilly” half of the Gilly & Keeves sketch duo will have his full-circle career moment a la Norm MacDonald when he hosts an episode of SNL with musical guest 21 Savage.
And to make matters even more amusing — the longstanding variety show has actually been accused of plagiarising Gillis’ material by eagle-eyed netizens.
Catch the Shane Gillis episode of Saturday Night Live on February 24th, 2024.
