Comedian Shane Gillis has been fired from iconic American sketch show Saturday Night Live just a week after he was hired.
Shortly after the announcement that Gillis had been added to the cast, a video from 2018 in which he used racial slurs to refer to Chinese people went viral. Another clip from the same month also saw Gillis use homophobic slurs in reference to Judd Apatow and Chris Gethard.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the show 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 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 has issued a statement on Twitter, saying he accepts the decision.
“Of course I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction,” he wrote.
Some comedians, such as Bill Burr and Rob Schneider, have spoken out against Gillis’ dismissal.
SNL is entering its 45th season this year.
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