Shane Gillis’ past use of racist, antisemitic slurs resurfaces ahead of ‘SNL’ return

Anti-Asian comments: The renewed attention to Gillis’ controversial past comes after “SNL” announced that he will host the NBC comedy sketch show on Feb. 24. Gillis was fired by the same show in 2019 shortly after a 2018 video of him using an anti-Asian slur — “f*cking ch*nks” — surfaced following the announcement of his casting alongside Bowen Yang, among others.

“Damn, Chinatown’s f*cking nuts. It’s crazy. It is full f*cking China, dude. It’s f*cking Chi-nee down there,” Gillis said in the video. At other times, he spoke about how “an Asian trying to learn English” bothers him and used a mock Asian accent to portray his “difficulty” conversing with a waitress at a Chinese restaurant.

Controversial past: A video recently compiled by TMZ features some of the slurs that Gillis dropped in multiple episodes of his Compound Media podcast, “A Fair One.” These include the n-word, the homophobic f-word and a Jewish slur.

In episode 11, Gillis made statements such as “Get this CNN Jew shit off of here” and “F*ck that k*ke face bitch.” He then used the n-word in episode 17, followed by the homophobic slur “f*gg*t” in episode 38.

Reactions: While some social media users welcomed NBC’s announcement that Gillis would be hosting, others were more critical. One Instagram user commented, “Wasn’t he fired for previous homophobic and racist comments? Is the barrel THAT empty right now?”

“Having Shane Gillis host ‘SNL’ is insane considering y’all fired him for being racist and homophobic,” one X user noted. “And I feel bad Bowen Yang for having to put up with a nasty comedian that hates every part of his existence.”

“You mean the guy you fired as a cast member because he was saying racist shit? Wow,” another Instagram user wrote. “What a disappointment SNL. I’ve been watching for decades and I’m so disappointed.”

“Shane Gillis was fired from ‘SNL’ for a history of extremely racist remarks, but five years later, he gets to host? Bowen Yang needs to go somewhere else,” another X user demanded.

“BLACK HISTORY MONTH? AND YOU’RE SPOTLIGHTING A RACIST, HELLO?” another Instagram user questioned.

Meanwhile, actor Jeff Locker called out “SNL” and creator Lorne Michaels for having “transphobe” Dave Chappelle and “homophobic” Nikki Haley in previous episodes.

“This is not f*cking ok,” Locker wrote in an X thread. “Alright, it’s time for Tina Fey to f*cking take over @nbcsnl.”