Shane Gillis: Saturday Night Live's new rookie fired for insults

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Saturday afternoon, the show of comedy sketches in the United States, Saturday Night Live, dropped another cast member after online videos showing that he was insulting about the Chinese have been found.

Shane Gillis, 31, was targeted shortly after the announcement of her casting when images of a resurfacing podcast were found.

"After talking with Shane Gillis, we decided that he would not join SNL," a SNL spokesman said.

Mr. Gillis wrote on Twitter that he respected the decision of the series.

"Of course, I wanted to have the opportunity to prove myself at SNL, but I understand that it would be too much of a distraction," he said, just a week after announcing his intention to join the NBC series.

SNL spokesman said Monday in a statement that the decision to fire Mr. Gillis – less than a week after the announcement of his casting – followed a discussion with the comedian.

"We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view in the series, and we've hired Shane for the strength of his comedic talent and his impressive audition for SNL.

"We were not aware of his earlier remarks that have resurfaced in recent days, and his language is offensive, offensive and unacceptable.

"We are sorry we did not see these clips earlier and that our verification process is not up to our standard."

The casting of Mr. Gillis was the subject of a close examination just hours after SNL announced that he would be one of three new recruits for the 45th season of the series.

A September 2018 podcast was broadcast in which Mr. Gillis made fun of the Chinese and described his remarks as "beautiful racism".

In another episode of the same month, Mr. Gillis was heard by homophobic insults to describe Hollywood producer Judd Apatow and comedian Chris Gethard.

Mr Gillis defended the comments on Twitter, claiming that he was a comedian "pushing the boundaries".

"My intention is to not hurt anyone, but I try to be the best comedian I can be and this sometimes involves risks."

Shortly after the broadcast of the recordings, the Good Good Comedy Theater in Philadelphia, Gillis' hometown, said on Twitter that the club had "deliberately chose not to work with him" because of his "racism declared , sexism, homophobia – expressed both on and on stage. "

In addition to Mr. Gillis, SNL had announced the hiring of two other new members of the cast: Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang.

Mr. Yang will be the first member of the full-time Chinese / American cast of the series.