Sept. 16 (UPI) — “Saturday Night Live” fired Shane Gillis Monday after videos surfaced in which he used gay and racial slurs, and made other disparaging comments.
An “SNL” representative issued a statement to CNN on behalf of creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, announcing the dismissal of Gillis, one of the show’s recent hires. The statement apologizes for not uncovering the videos during its vetting process.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining ‘SNL,'” the representative 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.’
“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 wrote a statement on Twitter discussing his dismissal and thanking the show for the opportunity.
“I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get ‘SNL.’ That can’t be taken away,” he wrote. “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.”
He previously responded to his comments in the video on Thursday, writing that he is “a comedian who pushes boundaries.”
“If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses,” he wrote. “I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said.”
