New SNL Cast Member Shane Gillis Was Just Pushing Boundaries With Racial Slur
Congratulations, Shane Gillis, on becoming one of the newest members of Saturday Night Live. Gillis will be joining fellow newcomers Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. Unfortunately, Shane’s celebration will be somewhat short-lived as he didn’t quite scrub the entire internet of his racist, homophobic and sexist comments. Aw, s**t. Someone is about to sacrificed at the altar of cancelled culture.
In a podcast that aired just last year, Gillis used an anti-Asian racial slur during a conversation with comedian Matt McCusker. He exclaimed, “Chinatown’s fucking nuts.” Later saying, “Let the fucking ch**ks live there.” Sure, it sounds bad out of context, but even in context it’s not great.
Gillis did the thing where you mimic what someone during a more intolerant time would say just so you can get a temporary pass to use a racial slur. Comedians need to realize these passes are earned through smart comedy. Otherwise, they just sound racist.
Variety has a few more things Gillis said, but I can’t really comment on those because I didn’t listen so I have no context. NBC and reps for Gillis at UTA have not replied to requests for comment, but Gillis did issue the usual non-apology via Twitter saying sorry if you feel offended.
Again, I can’t comment on the other stuff he said, but from the audio, it sounds like lazy comedy which will help him fit right in with SNL.
I disagree with your take because it ignores the fact that podcasts are long-form conversations and a lot of the “jokes” are inherently ill-conceived, lazy and throwaway. However, at least you have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge the context of his comment. Kind of sad when a b level blogger has more journalistic integrity that the New York Times–no offense.
I agree with your point about podcasts, but I still disagree with Shane’s jokes. Mostly because they’re bad. That wouldn’t be an issue if it was the early days of the podcast, but it’s not and there’s no evolution to his comedy. They’re still just throwaways which now just border the edgy teenager cliche.