After the sort of day that pretty much no one could have seen coming—except, presumably, stand-up comic and recent Saturday Night Live hire Shane Gillis, who apparently attempted to scrub large swathes of his podcast, containing off-color, racist, and homophobic comments, before taking the high-profile gig—it’s typically a time for reflection. You know: Put your feet up, crack open a cold one, and relax with the classics. Like the old “I’m sorry you feel offended” apology, a stone-cold fixture of the faux apology field.
And indeed, that’s what formerly Philly-based stand-up Gillis did tonight, responding to an evening of being barraged with his own admittedly pretty toxic words by issuing one of those “pictures of a Notes page” statements on Twitter, the kind that rarely mean things are going well. While attempting to distance himself from the contents of his podcast with a note about digging through “10 years” of his comedy—the most obviously objectionable material, including a racial slur against Asian people, was posted less than a year ago, mind you—Gillis also offered a heartfelt apology to “anyone who was actually offended.” (As with so much shitty male discourse on the internet, the load-bearing kind of “actually” is key.)
Both NBC and Saturday Night Live have so far declined to comment on this whole clusterfuck, even though one could easily assume that even a mild vetting process would have seen it all coming (Per a piece on him by Vulture, Gillis’ choice of language is well-known in the Philadelphia comedy scene.) It’s all especially irritating in that it takes away focus from the other two performers who joined the show’s cast today, Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman—both of whom are up 1-0 over their new colleague on the all-important “Twitter screenshot essay” count of social media screw-ups.
249 Comments
The fact that the racism, homophobia, and sexism wasn’t just part of his act, according to the Vulture article, but continued off-stage says all I need to know about this piece of trash.
Shane Gillis is one of the funniest comedians working today. You clearly know nothing about this man or about comedy. You’re out of your element and your opinion is completely uninformed and invalid.
Pick one: you’re either him (new account, no other posts) or you’re such a huge fan of a shitty comic who was barely known until now you come here to save your hero from meanies. Honestly, the first one would be better.
I mean, there *could* be a third possibility, namely that he’s a regular who created a burner just for this because he’s too chickenshit to use his regular account.
I think it’s clear it’s the 4th option. It’s Shane’s mom
I’m hoping even Shane’s mum is ashamed of him right now.
I like the cut of your jib.Assuming you have a jib and that it has been cut.
Somehow the first one is also less sad.
Sadly, he has enough of a devoted following that they fill their own subreddit. They call him their God. Not even joking.
He’s not going to fuck you.
Hey Shane, I just want to know one thing: why the fuck did you use the word “chinee?” Do you honestly think an old-timey racist slur needs to be brought back to the 21st fucking century?
As a Chinese person, let me tell you that 95% of the slurs I’ve heard throughout my life time have been the laziest, corniest “jokes” that were stale when your grandpa used them. The most insulting thing to me is that somehow my people aren’t worthy of coming up with new and original racism.
I think a lot of racists just don’t know enough about Chinese people (or any people of Asian backgrounds) to craft specific slurs. I’ve overheard many a dumbfuck use the wrong slur for the nationality they’re trying to insult. (I’m not going to type any of them here, but you know, slurs against the Chinese hurled at Japanese people.)
I honestly always thought ‘Chinee’ was invented for the TV show ‘Kung Fu’
That was the word he used? I thought it was “chink” (I remember because I read an article that said, “c- – – -k” and stupidly thought, “Cock? How does that make sense?” before learning how to count). Not that either are acceptable.
Neither are acceptable………OF _ _ _ K!
You’re a remarkable idiot
I don’t really know anything about Shane Gillis beyond what I’ve seen in the last day, so I’ll cop to that.But I know about comedy. And, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m not impressed. The issue isn’t just that he’s offensive. Good comedy can be offensive, sure. But good offensive comedy is usually transgressive. It pushes boundaries and provides a different perspective on life that many people aren’t accustomed to.But shit like this isn’t transgressive. It’s regressive. These jokes aren’t offending people because they’re upsetting people’s worldview. Because…they’re not. There’s nothing new here. It’s lazy and hacky and dated.
jesus shane shut the fuck up
lol
Nah.
I watched the entire clip about Chinatown, and listened to the first two minutes of the clip where they rank who make the best comedians (straight white men at the top, lol), and there was not one single passably funny thing in the whole lot. Now, 4 minutes is not nearly enough to judge someone, but for “one of the funniest comedians working today” you would think he could squeeze at least a chuckle out of that 4 minutes, especially since it was obvious just how hard he was trying.
Ah, the old “You have not met one of my arbitrary knowledge standards, therefore you have no right to an opinion” ploy. A stupid classic for a reason.
You’re a potato faced, inbred, self-loathing loser who not only has to pay for sex, you have to pay extra because you stink so bad, both your jokes and your pits. Yep, I know you AND comedy. Bye, bye, unenviable footnote in comedy history.
Just once, I want someone to say “Yeah, I said it. And fuck you all.” That man would be my hero.
Pick better villains, since that’s the only reason you could possibly think that’s heroic.
It’s not even about being heroic. It’s just being honest. Like I’d hate the fucking nazi all the same, but we’re at a point where I’d have the smallest amount of respect for someone whose at least honest about their hate.
I’m just tired of the bad faith arguments, the lies, the “I’M NOT RACIST, YOUR RACIST” bullshit of the alt-right.
It’s better than being the type of person to beg for forgiveness anytime anyone is offended about anything, especially in a society where apologies are picked apart and judged as not genuine, and then taken as an admission of guilt after which more punishment is called for. Fuck you. I said it.
Surprise! People make apologies (and some are rebuked) for all kinds of reasons! The society we actually live in is one of context!
Dave Chappelle? He better?
What about ‘I killed them all, of course’? Would that do?
The dude from Limp Bizkit killed somebody?
I would indeed appreciate it if racist bumblefucks were just open about their racist bumblefuckery rather than try to hide behind sham apologies. They would be far from my heroes though.
Do you want The Klan? Because that’s how you get The Klan.
I would indeed appreciate it if racist bumblefucks were just open about their racist bumblefuckery rather than try to hide behind sham apologies. They would be far from my heroes though.Remember when Trevor Noah went was hired by the Daily Shoah, someone dug through his twitter and all his standup and found like 8 gross jokes and it became a huge scandal? I hate that. I hate that we can do that now and we don’t give a place any more for people finding their voice, having dumb jokes that aren’t a part of their act any more. Most comics, most artists, suck for a really long time before they get good. And since comedy is public, we see the bad stuff. I’m not sure how healthy or productive this is. The reason assholes feel like this is a game of “find the worst bits anyone’s ever done and shame them for it” is because it sometimes is. Of course this guy clearly IS an asshole and those jokes were clearly made long after he became famous and this is a thing with him.
I mean last time I checked Trevor Noah was doing fine
Yeah it is way more terrifying when racists or other types of bigots learn to hide their prejudice and advance in society to the point where they use their influence to exert the type of social control that rambling hate-mongers wish they had. ‘Black KkKlansman” was pretty good at revealing just how much of a reality that can be. Though obviously it exists outside of Spike Lee movies etc.
That man would be my hero.Yeah, it would definitely be a man who said that.
Yeah, it would definitely be a man who said that.
You’re sexist.
Now you can be this persons hero. All you gotta say now is “Fuck you all.”
Sexist much?
Yeah, it would definitely be a man who said that.Not always. Natasha Leggero was asked to apologise for a joke and refused to by saying “People apologize too much.” Sarah Silverman too but this was way back in the 90s when her act was different. I think a lot of comics resent this weird cultural thing now where we troll for the worst bits, take them out of context half the time and demand apologies like that proves something. We don’t always have to judge people by their worst moments.
Alright, nine times out of ten, it would be a man. I’ll compromise. Maybe that statement will assuage the adorable little tempers on all the 12-year-old MRA fucks in my greys on that post calling me sexist. You’re cute, boys. Never change. Well, maybe a little.And yes, people do dig a little deep with some of this shit, and apologies more often than not don’t mean a whole hell of a lot. It’s basically the heckler situation at a club writ large. That club is now the internet, and we’re all the audience ready to throw tomatoes. Do they always need to be thrown? No, not always. But at least sometimes.
You know that is sexist right? Like if I was to say that “yeah, it’s definitely a woman that wrote your response to his comment” then I’d get shamed for being sexist. Before you try to say it’s completely different, it’s the same thing just treated differently for so reason so check the sexism at the door.
Oh do shut up you fucking cretin.
Mom?
That man is president.
which is why your Cato MINOR
You’re hero is an asshole. Aim higher.
That person wouldn’t be my hero, but it’d be a swerve to be sure.
You should check out Florida, there’s plenty of white retirees that take that route when challenged on full-blown racism.
that giant place with all the tricked out golf carts, it’s crackerville.
Crackerville is racist. So you have no room to be offended by anything this guy said for the rest of your life since you said something just as racist as him
Just FYI, there is a racist shitbird trolling this page under the guise of fake-concern (“check the sexism at the door”), his name is Noome942, he’s in the grays, feel free to dismiss his comments. Here is an example of one of his old comments: “If BLM was actually about equality, it would be called “all lives matter” instead.”
Let’s add “stupid” to the list of adjectives to that guy then, because that’s a royally idiotic take on BLM.
Exactly, no normal person would be offended by what he said. People need to stop apologizing for things that only upset one percent of the population. Stop appeasing crybaby basement dwellers.
Shout out bulls.
well, the goal WASN’T to offend Asian people, it was to marginalize and dehumanize them so his white audience feels more comfortable othering them and discriminating against them. He was a rat then (12 months ago) and he’s a rat now.
Your hero would be someone who was publicly racist and then when asked about it, doubled down about how racist they were? Uh… okay Mr. racism fan?
Have I got a President for you.
Just once, I want someone to say “Yeah, I said it. And fuck you all.” That man would be my hero.You must have a lot of heroes then. “I told a bad joke! I’m sooooo brave!” Half of comedy is mediocre guys who failed at legit careers with specials called, always, always, “Triggered” or “No safe spaces” where they say bad words and wait for their drooling audience to treat them like Lenny Bruce. I don’t care what you say, what words you use, what groups you offend, as long as you’re funny. But I’ve noticed no one ever defends these guys on the basis of how actually funny their jokes are. It’s always whining about free speech and SJWs and cancel culture. Never “This joke is hilarious! You have to hear it!”Ever notice that? Probably not.
Its difficult to defend them on how funny they are because we never know the context of these accusations. It’s always “they said this word and that word and people should be offended!” On print, no less. It’s so much easier to just write up some words shitting on whomever for the clicks and whatnot, than it is to actually have an in depth look at the comics intentions.Why? Because explaining jokes fucking sucks! Nobody wants to actually do that. The best response to this type of outrage is simply “relax. They’re comedians. Not the president. It’s ok to not like them. No need to get carried away.” But obviously, it’s kinda tiring to have to remind people of that simple thing every single time. Sooooo, I don’t know. Who gives a shit? Is essentially my response.
I don’t care what you say, what words you use, what groups you offend, as long as you’re funny. But I’ve noticed no one ever defends these guys on the basis of how actually funny their jokes are. It’s always whining about free speech and SJWs and cancel culture. Never “This joke is hilarious! You have to hear it!”chappelle, but ya’ll didn’t want to hear that either.
So, that “someone” wouldn’t be your hero if it was a woman?
Why?
Your hero exists, by the millions, and they are all shitty 11-17 year olds who you would want to murder within 5 minutes.
What a staggeringly low bar you set for “heroism.”
Oh I know this dude. He did JFL, and clusterfest and podcasts with Michael Che. Maybe that’s how he got hired. Wonder what will happen.
Oh man, of course he’s in with Che. Looking forward to the inevitable Instagram stories where Che complains about tweets from people critical of this chud that he’ll claim were sent to him by fans and that he definitely didn’t seek out himself, no sir.
The clip of him on that podcast or whatever is really gross, the way that shit just effortlessly leaves his mouth is pretty telling.
I have no desire to actually listen to it to find out how gross it is. It’s weird how much more exposure he’s getting because of it, though. Like, without saying whatever it was he said, no one would have really even noticed him. >_<
This is a joke, right? …Please tell me it was a joke? He was hired to SNL. He will be very noticed.
It blew over pretty quickly with Melissa Villasenor 3 years ago. She deleted most of her social media. No one seems to really remember it. Probably because shes barely ever on the show.
It’s not funny. It’s two douchebros trading lame jokes like they are 15 year olds pretending to have a podcast. That said, you are right. This guy would have received almost no attention had he not said a bad word, hired for SNL or not.
Yeah. There’s literally no “hey we’re just joking.” It’s watching two bros show how they clearly don’t understand a goddamn thing using slurs because they are “edgy” and so anti-pc, yo.
I’m sure they were popular with all the 12 year olds/man children.
There is a reason they went back and deleted their entire archive of past shows before this was announced, him and Matt play it extremely loose with the race shit.They said a ton of racist stuff on their show and it was never going to play if he was going to be on a mainstream show like SNL. They also never even hint at a wink while saying any of their stuff. The guys on Cum Town are more nuanced with their jokes about race.
Takes a special kind of new hire to make me nostalgic for Brooks Wheelan and Luke Null.
Also known as “that guy” and “that other guy”.
Luke seems like a pretty decent guy – he never had much of a chance on SNL as they knew he was a musical comedian yet never let any of this get on the air. Brooks felt like a proto-Pete Davidson. Looking back I wish they’d kept him instead.
Yeah despite my tone I’ve got no beef with either, not their fault necessarily that they weren’t given anything to do.
As we all know the most innovative and daring way to “push boundaries” is to shout racial and homophobic slurs like a 12-year-old who thinks he’s getting away with something. Way to crack the code, you risk-taking comic genius you.
It’s the 20-year-old’s equivalent of a 12-year-old’s shouting “penis” as loud as he can during a sleepover.
Shouting “penis” at a sleepover is funny tho.
I still do!
I would watch this SNL sketch
Still, pretty funny even at 30
Oh, that damn childish mentality. “You can’t say that word” – “But now I REEEEEEALLY wanna say it”. It’s such basic psychology, it still amazes me that some people can’t figure it out about themselves. I mean, sure, yeah, it’s an easy high, doing something you were told you can’t and getting away with it, but… I mean, be a grown up. Find a taboo kink or something and go nuts.
KINK SHAMING!!!11
Where? It’s the exact opposite: I support people following their kinks (with full consent, of course), at least partially, for the reason of letting their ids breathe. We live in a society that teaches to not do a lot of stuff. It’s hard for the psyche to be constrained so heavily.And yes, I get that you aren’t serious, but accusing me in kink shaming is like accusing Cookie Monster in hating pastry.
“Me like pastry. Me hate self.” ~ Cookie Monster
We’re talking about a comedian looking for boundary-pushing jokes. I read “go nuts” as “make jokes about”.
And a lot of 90s comedy played into that. I love South Park, but white guys seemingly main takeaway from that series is that “BOY OH BOY IT’S JUST HILARIOUS TO SCREAM JEWS” without ever really understanding context.
I love South Park, but white guys seemingly main takeaway from that series is that “BOY OH BOY IT’S JUST HILARIOUS TO SCREAM JEWS” without ever really understanding context. Which is then seized upon to criticize the entire show, based entirely on the context of the most obnoxious part of the fanbase.
South Park is one of the most pernicious influences on modern-day discourse and you can’t change my mind
Christ you’re a pussy.
I rest my case
South Park is one of the most pernicious influences on modern-day discourse……amongst mouth-breathing know-nothings. If South Park didn’t exist they’d still be mouth-breathing know-nothings influenced by the 2nd most pernicious IP.
Or you know, white guys getting upset something isn’t “theirs”. White dudes never get denied access to anything. When they do (racial slurs) they get upset.
He can’t even make the apology funny – like most shitty comedians who are confronted for offensive shit, he falls back on platitudes instead of jokes, like the following:“It’s no excuse, but people have been calling me shitty names my whole life. Like ‘Shane Gillis.’”or
“It’s no excuse, but I’m from Philadelphia. Nothing good comes out of our mouths. Or goes into them.”or“Give me another chance, and I promise to be more of a Chris Kattan and less of a Dennis Miller.”
If this guy’s apology contained the words “I promise to be more of a Chris Kattan”, we’d all be demanding an apology for that apology.
why aren’t you getting cast on SNL?
Lorne Michaels: “Hired.”
imagine how Gillis would be lauded today if he’d said one of these instead.
Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor figured out a funny take 45 years ago and made Blazing Saddles. But they also knew how to be funny in all kinds of different ways. I watched some clips of this guy and he was just a hack. Lazy, sloppy, dull. Not even Jimmy Fallon levels of lazy, sloppy, dull.
The think that made Blazing Saddles work is that the slurs served a purpose, and the comedy was never punching down (well, there was some homophobic stuff there that was not handled well).I see that “Blazing Saddles couldn’t be made today!” argument all the time, and I think that comes from people who seem to not understand the film. Yes, the movie says the n-word. A lot (though so do Tarantino films so…). But the people who say it are, invariably, evil idiots. And the movie portrays them that way. The joke is never “ha that black guy sure is an n-word”, it’s “god these racists are real fucking stupid”. And that’s a really, really important facet of the whole thing about using slurs in comedy. It can be done, it can be funny, but the use of a slur on its own can’t be the joke.
Also, a lot of good things genuinely can’t be made today, and they’ll say the same thing in 40 years about stuff that’s being made today. That doesn’t make older work better or worse than newer work, it’s just the nature of time and change. Nobody wants a stagnant culture, which means accepting that certain works become less accessible as they age (I wouldn’t necessarily put Blazing Saddles in that basket, but most comedies have moments that age poorly).
Oh absolutely. Comedy in general tends to be a form that ages very, very quickly.
My favorite example of a racial slur being used effectively in a joke is a bit Sarah Silverman did on Conan about trying to get out of jury duty. It went something like, “My friends told me to write I hate ch*nks on the summons. But I didn’t want to be thought of as racist. So I wrote I love ch*nks.” Understandably, there was outrage over it, but I don’t think the joke really works without a racial slur.
Richard Pryor wrote Blazing Saddles?
Yes.
I did not know that.
Richard Pryor was one of the five credited writers of Blazing Saddles, yes — he was also intended to be the star but Warner Bros. wouldn’t go for it.
But it’s worth noting everything I’ve ever seen or read suggests Pryor had almost zero interest in writing the racial stuff — he’s mainly responsible for Mongo, apparently.
To expand, this is how Mel Brooks put it in a great interview with Will Harris (but that’s redundant):https://film.avclub.com/mel-brooks-1798227333“You would think that Richard Pryor would give you the black view. You
know, the black guy’s torment and broken heart. But no, he loved Mongo.
He wrote, “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” Brilliant. He loved Mongo,
so a lot of Mongo was Richard Pryor. And I wrote a lot of the black
stuff, always checking with Richard. “Can I say this? Can I say that?”
Like, I would do some bad black jokes, and Richard would say, “Good, go
with it, fine.” And every once in awhile, he’d say, “Yeah, that’s all
right to say that. But that’s not funny.” He was terrific.”
New guy over here
Co-wrote it with Brooks and others. Brooks wanted him to star in it, but apparently he was considered too risky at the time (from drug arrests, according to the studio, but may have been an excuse). Cleavon Little, of course, nailed the role.
Yeah, I think there’s a small percentage of cases where using a slur as a joke can be clever and have a point beyond just, “LOOK AT MEE, I’M SAYING AN OFFENSIVE WORD!” but most of the time it’s just someone trading off the shock value or who just uses it as part of their regular vocabulary.
There’s that whole story of when Seinfeld first went clean, tried out a joke without anything crass and found it didn’t land as hard. Some comedians are like Seinfeld and lean into that challenge, others are like Gillis and take the easiest execution.
I’ll bet any amount of money he will be on tour in a few years with some version of the phrase “safe spaces” in the title.
A few years??? He’d better do this shit next week, cuz this is as close as he’s ever going to get to being a real celebrity. We barely remember most of the people who actually made it onto SNL, this guy’s toast.
Dave Chappelle IS a risk-taking comic genius.
As we all know the most innovative and daring way to “push boundaries” is to shout racial and homophobic slurs like a 12-year-old who thinks he’s getting away with something. Way to crack the code, you risk-taking comic genius you.Just once, I want one of these jokes to actually be funny. Where you laugh in spite of yourself. That has never ever happened.
It’s far from the biggest problem here but I’m stuck on the part where he says that “most” of his 10 years in comedy was “bad.” I’m not sure whether he means that he was mostly professionally unsuccessful for those 10 years or that most of his material was terrible, though the second reading makes more sense with the “lots of bad misses” at the end of the sentence. It’s such a weird approach to this. “Look, I know many of you think I’m a terrible human being, but you should also realize that I’m not very good at my job, either.”
i think you’re overthinking it. he’s just being self-deprecating
“I’m so humble and regular, how can I be racist??”
Honestly that’s just a comedy thing. Obviously there are exceptions, but most professional comedians bomb a LOT in the “pre-fame” stage of their career. Of course it doesn’t help if your material is racist and shitty.
He don’t get no respect!
The “link” to the Vulture piece just takes you to the apology tweet that’s already embedded at the top of the page. Nice job, guy. You’re as good at pop culture blogging as Shane Gillis is at comedy!
Got you to click and comment, didn’t it?
Here it is:
https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/snl-shane-gillis-racist-homophobic-remarks.html
Oh, this will end well.
Having watched the clips, it’s not what you’d call boundary pushing comedy. In fact, it was some of the laziest, most obvious comedy I’ve seen.
Yeah, I’m not impressed. Dave Chappelle has said some questionable things in his standup but it all comes back to it being a joke. And it’s funny. This was boring and I felt like I was hearing a Breitbart comment section come to life
I’m sort of bewildered that SNL felt like they just had to hire this guy. The show just couldn’t go on without… whatever his name is. Fat guy #65,596,495. What would the world do without hearing his thoughts about Chinese food?And his “apology” which was basically “I guess I’m just too edgy for you!” makes it even worse. Pushing boundaries, meaning doing the same material that shit comedians were doing 60 years ago. Real risky.
Especially when this news comes out with the fact that SNL has hired its first East Asian regular ever.Hey Lorne, maybe should have opt for maybe going with the first TWO East Asian regulars instead
Why? That’s boring. Much more entertaining to hire a white guy who said a bad word 10 months ago that SNL totally knew about, throw him under the bus for the slur, and then score woke points for both hiring an Asian and defending Asians from the unfunny white guy. This whole thing could not have been more calculated.
Why? That’s boring. Much more entertaining to hire a white guy who said a bad word 10 months ago that SNL totally knew about, throw him under the bus for the slur, and then score woke points for both hiring an Asian and defending Asians from the unfunny white guy. This whole thing could not have been more calculated.Wow, nothing says “I’m brilliant” like believing the oldest lumberingest dinosaur is playing brilliant games of 12-D chess in order to “score woke points” something only unsuccessful neckbeards with classical bust avis think is actually a thing. Another possibility, and hear me out because this is complicated, the the old dinosaur network and the untouchable godlike EP who’s been running the show since the 70s don’t bother to do a deep social media dive on every candidate who auditions.
Yeah, dude. Lorne Michaels doesn’t run background checks on his new hires, and also has never heard of Twitter or social media. He was totally caught off guard by this ‘cause he’s so old and boomer. He certainly doesn’t have a human resources department full of educated individuals who understand and handle this for him. No, man, you’re right. Big ol dum dum NBC doesn’t know how to computer. This was all organic and the functionally illiterate masses of the internet totally pulled one over on the people who literally own the internet. Also, it’s not like Twitter is predictable. There is certainly no way to write a very misleading headline and get massive retweets while spreading information so vague and removed from the actual truth that it might as well be fabricated. And who would ever come up with the idea to create a headline to elicit a specific response out of the public? That’s just preposterous, right?
Yeah, dude. Lorne Michaels doesn’t run background checks on his new hires, and also has never heard of Twitter or social media. He was totally caught off guard by this ‘cause he’s so old and boomer. He certainly doesn’t have a human resources department full of educated individuals who understand and handle this for him. No, man, you’re right. Big ol dum dum NBC doesn’t know how to computer. This was all organic and the functionally illiterate masses of the internet totally pulled one over on the people who literally own the internet.I’m saying they don’t bother. Why would they? Nothing like this has ever actually hurt anyone on an NBC show. You think HR or Standards and Practices cares? They don’t because they have no reason to. Unless someone goes to jail or people actually organise a successful boycott (none of which are close to happening) this actually doesn’t matter to them.
You are clearly neither a doctor or a lawyer.
You are clearly neither a doctor or a lawyer. You understand how jokes work. High five!
That was a very impressive feat of sustained sarcasm.
You are probably 100% right.
Excellent points. Im assuming you wrote this while taking a moment away from waiting breathlessly for the next update from “Q.”
Whoa! Like Melissa Villasenor said on this issue – baby steps.
It took them 40+ years.
What???
Lorne wants the show to be his idea of everything to everybody – in Lorne’s case, everybody is still mostly white America, with shifts toward diversity halting and at times almost forced upon the show. A guy like Gillis was commonplace on SNL 25 years ago, in the bad boy era, at least in presentation moreso than behavior. The white male conservative viewer who grew up loving Farley and Sandler, and later, Will Ferrell, left SNL behind, especially after they were seen as being anti-Trump. I imagine this was part of a move to get that type of viewer back, even though they are never coming back. I had actually assumed, cynical as I am, that Lorne knew about these ugly comments and was hoping to get this type of viewer base flamed up, but as more and more has come out, I am starting to think maybe he didn’t bother to vet.
The white male conservative viewer who grew up loving Farley and Sandler, and later, Will Ferrell, left SNL behind, especially after they were seen as being anti-Trump. I imagine this was part of a move to get that type of viewer back, even though they are never coming back.Will Farrell is completely different than the Sandler/Farley/Spade “bad boy era”. Which for the most part wasn’t even about offensive stereotype-based humor. I mean they had it, but it was more fratty stuff like catchphrases and getting hit in the nuts. They have a fundamentally conservative worldview but it’s not based in being racist or homophobic to the extent that that’s what would get that audience in a vaccuum. The perpetually offended incels and “lol trigger warning” guys tens not to like Sandler much either. And I’m going with “didn’t bother to vet.” Why would he? When has he ever? SNL has never in its zillion years had a mass scandal because one of their cast members or writers has a history of saying dumb shit.
They seem more different now than I think they did at the time. Ferrell was in sketches that, if memory serves, had him being raped over and over by a bear until he began lisping and wearing lipstick and begging for more.I would agree that overall, their material was different that edge-bro comedians today. I just think Lorne, who is an old man, doesn’t get that.
I feel like the vetting failure goes to the head writers and ground team that scouts for Lorne these days. Not exactly excusing him, because the man has veto power, but there are enough folks with Google capabilities with sway at play that failed.
Eh, rather than putting money on Lorne not vetting enough, I’m thinking he/casting knew about it, but went *shrug* “But hiring one Asian guy will balance it out and show we’re not racist!”
I feel that’s the case too: they were specifically looking to get a more “conservative” comic because a lot of the latest criticism of the show is that it’s just become a lefty-joke fest. Granted, conservative comedy usually isn’t funny because it hasn’t moved beyond 8 year olds doing the “slant-eye” face style of humor, but whatever.
i agree with you, except what does fat have anything to do with it? you act like that’s this interchangeable stereotype among comedians
It kind of is a sterotype. Put this guy next to Frank Calliendo, Kevin James or Will Sasso and tell me if you can tell them apart. I’m not anti-fat, but it’s definitely part of the schtick.
I’m sort of bewildered that SNL felt like they just had to hire this guy. The show just couldn’t go on without… whatever his name is. Fat guy #65,596,495. What would the world do without hearing his thoughts about Chinese food?Sometimes people who make shitty, bad, jokes, also make really good, funny jokes. Not saying that’s the case here but realistically no one gets it perfect all the time. If the guy is all shit or not funny I get it. But I don’t understand what people are asking for? An apology? We shouldn’t shame people for changing and growing and getting better. I bet nearly every comic has offensive dumb shit in their pasts. We’re going to need to deal with that, that basically no one is pure.
See, I agree with you. I’m a big old bleeding-heart liberal, but I can’t get behind the idea that when someone does something like this, they’re permanently canceled. Are we really just supposed to assume that every person who apologizes is full of shit, and should continue to be represented solely by their mistakes?I don’t want to be reductive or anything, but it’s not like this guy is an elected official. What he said doesn’t have any permanent widespread implications, he doesn’t make legislation, he has no power. He has some dumbfuck, unfunny material in his past, and he was an asshole. Is it really impossible that someone could evolve past something like that?
He said this last year! How much has he grown or changed since then? Not much, at least according to the non-apology that he put up. I’m all for comedians saying what they want to say, but not only was this just hacky as hell, but he also dropped a freaking ethnic slur and then moved on as if nothing had happened. A lot of the times people go overboard about things and take offense at trivial things. But, jeez, there has to be a line somewhere and racism seems like a pretty good marker to put down.
SNL doesn’t hire anyone without hiring a corresponding white guy. It doesn’t matter if they’re any good.
Nice to know that in this world fat shaming still exists.
“Fat guy #65,596,495.” Ah yes, I forgot that body shaming is still the acceptable form of bigotry.
This is my inner cynical bitch talking, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it were revealed that SNL intentionally hired people like him to drum up publicity. Then again, I’m probably giving them far too much credit.
They don’t have the foresight for that sort of thing, it’s just them blindly emptying clip after clip in the direction of their feet until they hit.
I thought the same thing last night, until more and more started coming out about just all he said. A writer from Vulture also suggested they don’t bother to vet.
Well we can at least be sure that the AV Club wrote this piece just to get clicks.
SNL, just hire Brennan Lee Mulligan from CollegeHumor. He’s great and underused there.
He’s got the best D&D dungeon master narrator voice.
SNL deserves Brennan even less than CollegeHumor does.
“It’s all especially irritating in that it takes away focus from the other two performers who joined the show’s cast today, Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman”You could choose not to focus on this dude and write about the other two
Huh? How the heck would that work?
Oddly enough I think it kinda *does* put more focus on the other two than they would ordinarily have had if the story was simply “3 new hires at SNL”. They may also be terrible people for all I know, but I subconsciously read their bios on here with more interest than I might have done, because they’ve got that new shine of “the two that aren’t the racist asshole”.
That’s a good point although I was already familiar with Bowen Yang.Maybe this is what SNL had in mind all along, hire a complete shithead in order to get publicity. Still not a good move and shows super poor judgement on their part.
oh yeah great plan let’s ignore the homophobic racist and have him see no repercussions brilliant galaxy brain stuff
This.
Cute you think William knows how to write.
It’s worthwhile to call SNL out for being as shitty as it is.
Sure.What’s stopping them from writing additional articles to focus on the two other hires tho?
Oh sure, like anyone’s going to read those posts.
The internet’s blood lust must be appeased first! Their thirst is unquenchable.
THANK YOU!
It’s one thing to not find the jokes offensive (even though they definitely are) but they’re just… bland and old? Like the kind of humor that is so dated and stale and didn’t even pack a real punch way back when. Even if they weren’t offensive they’d be hack material
You seem to be repeatedly vacillating back and forth throughout this comment about whether or not you think it’s offensive. Which is it?Having listened to the excerpts from his podcast… it was pretty weird. I’m generally a defender of offensive comedy, but most of the things he said weren’t even delivered in the cadence of a joke, they seem to be his actual opinions- no subversion to these stereotypes or anything like that. In order to do this sort of humor successfully, it requires a certain level of nuance, and this guy just does not have what it takes to pull it off.
No they definitely landed on them being offensive, not sure where you saw any vacillating. They’re just also hack.
Yeah, that’s…kinda the thing.Comedy can be offensive. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But it has to be funny. Just repeating dated stereotypes is only offensive.
Well this guy is funny – I sure did LOL while reading his ‘apology’!
I dunno, he missed the opportunity to use the drop-the-mike punchline of “I’m the victim here!”
Indeed. Also seems like it would have been a good time to deploy the Ambien defense.
“Maybe it’s SOCIETY that’s the real racist.”
“I’m a who pushes boundaries.”Ah yes, the universal defense of someone who likes to intentionally piss people off for no reason but to piss people off.
I’m a senior IT security specialist who pushes boundaries!
“My desecration of that corpse was just a brilliant piece of satire.”
A simple “I said it and it was fucked up and I’m sorry about it,” would have sufficed.The people who are truly offended will either accept that or not. Either wat, that is totally out of his control. The best he can do is move on and hopefully work on developing some better material.
Why do you people demand everyone to bow down and genuflect before you? It’s creepy.
Fuck this guy. He’s not “edgy”, he’s a jackass. But I do congratulate him on the millions he’ll make on the Right-Wing speaking circuit in a few years.
Ah yes, pushing the boundaries of comedy by…*checks notes*… making a joke about l’s sounding like r’s in Chinese dialect. So brave.
Has our president weighted in yet on Twitter? An unfunny fat white man is in trouble?!
Heh, “‘weighted’ in on Twitter”. This comment is worth its weight in fat jokes!
“New SNL hire Shane Gillis opts for the ever-crappy “Sorry you’re sorry” approach”Well done, headline writer.
Your link to the Vulture piece is actually a link to his Twitter apology, so who’s the real villain, here?
Here it is:
https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/snl-shane-gillis-racist-homophobic-remarks.html
Does SNL even vet these people before hiring them? No background checks? He’s gonna be fired before he even gets to be on a live broadcast of SNL.
According to this, apparently not:
Hating on PC culture is often a way of someone saying, let me be openly racist without being called out.
I give comedians far more leverage when it comes to being offensive than I do most other people, but I do always wonder what specifically some of them mean by defining racism, homophobia, sexism et al as “pushing boundaries”. Andy Kaufman pushed boundaries. Steve Martin pushed boundaries. Mitch Hedberg pushed boundaries. Stephen Wright, Neil Hamburger, Maria Bamford push boundaries. These are people who’ve explored the corners of comedy and attempted something new, approached it in a way that others hadn’t. There is nothing at all “boundary pushing” about bigotry. It’s the oldest, safest, cheapest laugh there is.
I do a lot of the same. I watched the Alec Baldwin roast, and I was good with everything except Adam Corolla being a fucking tool for the exact sort of reason you’re talking about.
I can handle “offensive.” But was he funny? That’s the more important thing.
Can we stop trying to “re-center” the story on the other two? This isn’t about them. Boo fucking hoo they didn’t fuck up in public…yet. Give them time.
Now back to the online execution of this guy I never heard of before for a weak, mildly offensive joke! I am now suitably OFFENDED.
What?
Can we stop trying to “re-center” the story on the other two? This isn’t about them. Boo fucking hoo they didn’t fuck up in public…yet. Give them time.
Now back to the online execution of this guy I never heard of before for a weak, mildly offensive joke! I am now suitably OFFENDED.
I don’t understand…are any of the now-interchangeable white guys leaving SNL? Why are they getting yet another? Is Heidi Garner leaving? She just got major major agent representation so she might be thinking features soon…but if not why get Chloe Fineman? At least when they drop this doofus they’re not short anyone…but they really had too many vanilla white guys already.
He was likely there to try to appeal to the old school Farley and Sandler fans, but beyond that, there are two white guys who are probably in their last season (Beck and Kyle).
the all-important “doofus” contingent…but even if Sandler is a closet republican his comedy has never been particularly racial unless I’ve missed something (he leaves that to Rob).
I never have seen most of his films, but on SNL he generally avoided that type of ugliness, even as others delved into brownface and yellowface.
still, I have a lot of fatigue for all of Kyle Beck Mikey and Alex…maybe this is SNL’s way of telling us we should be happy with what we have because jabronis like this schmuck are what will replace them.
I don’t feel like Alex is ever used that much, or that well. With better material he’d be a great asset. Mikey is very much in his comfort zone – happy, smiley, loud, reacting to things. It gets a bit one-note. He reminds me of Taran Killam, if Taran had been able to move past his Nick days and act for an adult show. I like Beck and Kyle, mostly for their short films, but I’m pretty sure they’re heading for the exit door anyway.I guess this guy is the type we’re going to get a lot more of soon on the show, even if he himself doesn’t make it.
“As with so much shitty male discourse on the internet, the load-bearing kind of ‘actually’ is key.”Is there any AV Club writer more insufferable than William Hughes?
There is clearly sum ting wong with this Gillis guy.
It is not manditory in our society to hold critical theory or racially inoffensive opinions in public. Stop trying to make social justice fetch happen.
not that it’s worse than saying racist shit, but this guy isn’t even funny. like he didn’t cross a line trying something interesting and witty. it was just dumb.
Here’s that Vulture story that you mistakenly didn’t link to:https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/snl-shane-gillis-racist-homophobic-remarks.html
I wanted to read the Vulture article that’d was linked but it only went back to his shitty tweet.
These motherfuckers don’t even like the food in Chinatown. Fuck off.
I saw that Chris Redd, a very talented and poorly used cast member who, frankly, could do a lot better than SNL, ‘liked’ a tweet that said ‘fuck Shane Gillis.’ Well if he ends up leaving over this mess then I don’t blame him.
SNL is like the 2nd Amendment. Everyone knows it’s stupid and sucks, but no single entity has the political capital to kill it.
I’m sure all those 5-year-olds I used to chauffeur around who shouted ‘Underpants!’ and giggled thought they were being ‘edgy’, too.
Love it when the left eats their own.
I like how the writer of this article sounds offended by his actions but slips in a sexist comment like it’s completely different. To quote “shitty male discourse”. Yeah, you are really riding the high horse here with that kind of sexist statement.
Thank you for adding more shitty male discourse. Now go fuck yourself. No one else will.
“..a racial slur against Asian people, was posted less than a year ago..”I’m not sure what kind of slur it was, though probably on a par with Chappelles from a month ago. It’s not slurs, it’s comedy – people from Rickles to Pryor have been doing exaggerated stereotypes of ethnicities forever, it’s just lately that people stopped laughing and sought out the fainting couches. In the future, God willing, the cancel culture will be seriously mocked (OK, maybe comedically mocked, that’s better).
Replace “sought out the fainting couches” with “started listening to people from these other cultures who’ll tell you that this kind of comedy was always offensive and dehumanising and never actually funny”. Then once you’ve done that, fuck off.
Hell yeah dude.
well .. im kinda getting tired of this “cancel culture” we find ourselves in now. this whole “you said something and now you must never work again” is just kinda getting old fast. It was fun for a while but its getting old …
Go easy on this guy, he clearly has Down syndrome.
Nothing wrong with his tweet and I agree completely. I defintely want that kind of mindset on snl. Safe comedy is boring comedy
What is safer than endorsing white supremacy in a white supremacist society?
Boring comedy is also boring comedy.
If you think using racial slurs and making such fresh takes as “I can’t understand what this Chinese waiter is saying!” is anything other than boring, then I honestly don’t think much of your taste in comedy.
Can’t wait for Chapelle and Seinfeld to explain why this dude is actually the victim in all of this and why we don’t deserve his brilliant comedy or theirs.
It is not racist to utter words that some people find offensive. Context is important. So much actual horrible racist, xenophobic stuff going on and comedians make easy targets for lazy click bait.
Examples please! C’mon smart guy, tell us what is and what isn’t racist then.GO ON.
You go first.
Burn the witch.
And since Lorne loves big brash funny (white) guy, Mr. Gillis will not have anything to worry about.
I am often happy to apologize. It’s how you know it’s sincere.
To all the people in the comments dragging out the “and even when they apologize people complain about the apology” trope:
The proper way to apologize — and really, the only way to avoid this pitfall — is to make damn sure you actually understand what you did wrong and why it was hurtful/wrong/whatever and then articulate that. That’s the step most folks miss when they act like simply saying “I’m sorry” should be enough before screaming “what do you people waaaaaanttt?! I said I was sorry!”
That’s what people want. They want to make damn sure you know why what you did was wrong and then they want you to communicate that, both so we know you really understand and also so it can serve as a lesson to anyone who might be thinking of following in your footsteps.
The same SNL that had Trump as a host? Yawn. Kids these days would shit a brick if they heard Bruce, Carlin or Pryor. Everyone now is just a fucking amateur
I guess this is going to be Hughes’ new career, being Internet Scold. Wherever would be be without entitled white men online to tell everyone how to behave? It actually may with this this SNL dude cause he seems unfunny and no one knows who he is. But I bet Hughes spent many nights crying in his crusty bathrobe because the general public don’t give two fucks about Twitter’s scolding of people like Dave Chappelle.
SNL, cast Adam Friedland.
I mean, “how did everybody connected to this guy’s hiring not see this coming” is a really reasonable question.1. They genuinely didn’t see it coming.
2. They saw it coming and hoped the internet wouldn’t figure it out.
3. They saw it coming, expected the internet to figure it out, and didn’t care.
None of these alternatives is a good look for those involved.
You people are endless pussies.