More than four years after he was fired from “Saturday Night Live” over racist comments, Shane Gillis returned to the show on Saturday, urging viewers not to look into why he was fired before his first day on the job.
The comedian served as host of SNL on Feb. 24 after he was fired as a cast member in 2019. Gillis referenced this at the top of his monologue, though he did not elaborate on the fact to viewers that it was the offensive racial comments that led to the ouster. with it.
“Most of you probably have no idea who I am,” he said. “I was actually kicked off this show a while ago, but don't look it up, please. If you don't know who I am, please, don't Google it. It's okay. Don't worry about it.”
“I probably shouldn't be here, honestly,” he added.
Gillis was hired as a cast member on “SNL” in 2019 but was fired days later before appearing in a single episode. At the time, he faced backlash over a 2018 podcast clip in which he used an anti-Asian slur. Executive producer Lorne Michaels said he was not aware of the clip when he hired Gillis and thought the language used by the comedian was “offensive, hurtful and unacceptable.” Gillis said at the time that he was a “boundary-pushing comedian” and would be “happy to apologize to anyone who has actually been offended by anything I've said.”
New “SNL” cast member Shane Gillis He apologizes for using anti-Asian slurs in the resurfaced video
The rest of Gillis's monologue, during which he joked that “every little boy is just his mother's gay best friend” and discussed having family members with Down syndrome, seemed to elicit mixed reactions in the room. At one point, Gillis said the studio was so well lit that he could “see everyone not enjoying” his jokes in the audience.
“This is, you know, the most stressful ever,” he said.
'SNL' fires Shane Gillis Due to racist comments four days after his appointment
Gillis also seemed surprised that he didn't laugh more at a joke about his father, who was in the audience, as a “volunteer girls' high school basketball coach.”
“I thought it was funny,” Gillis said. “Okay. Don't you think it's funny to bring my dad over here to make fun of him because he's the high school girls' basketball coach? Okay. I thought he was great, never mind. I thought he was going to be a big hit here.”
Gillis was appointed in 2019 at the same time as Bowen Yang. At the end of the episode, Gillis, who said that being here “means a lot to me,” was seen hugging Yang on stage as the credits rolled.
'SNL' mocks Donald Trump's gold sneakers
During the rest of the show, Gillis had the opportunity to show off his impression of Donald Trump in a sketch mocking the former president's Trump-branded gold sneakers, which were recently unveiled at a convention in Philadelphia.
In the sketch, a movie trailer for a spoof of a movie similar to “Like Mike” titled “White Men Can Trump,” Gillis played a man who begins to look and act like Trump after putting on the sneakers.
But instead of making him good at basketball, Gillis' character explains that the shoe “gave me the ability to say I was good at basketball, and then double down on that until people started to believe it.”