Lorne Michaels reflects on Shane Gillis SNL casting backlash: The overreaction to it was so stunning

Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels thinks everyone made too big a deal over Shane Gillis controversial past.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the producer-turned-mogul reflected on the backlash to the controversial comedians hiring. “We had a bad time when I added Shane Gillis to the cast [in 2019],” Michaels said. “He got beat up for things that he’d done years earlier [racist and homophobic jokes] and the overreaction to it was so stunning — and the velocity of it was 200 Asian companies were going to boycott the show.”

Lorne Michaels and Shane Gillis.

Cindy Ord/Getty; Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Michaels went on to praise Gillis talents and defended the decision to bring the comedian back as an SNL host last year. “It became a scandal and I go, No, no, he’s just starting and he’s really funny and you don’t know how we’re going to use him.” he said. “And when he came back to the show last year [to host], we saw, Oh right, he’s really talented, and he would’ve been really good for us.”

Michaels also suggested that cancel culture became too granular by the time the Gillis controversy emerged. “His life turned out well without SNL, but my point with it is everything became way too serious,” he said. “It was like a mania. And the velocity of cancellation — and lots of people deserved to not be liked — it just became not quite the Reign of Terror, but it was like you’re judging everybody on every position they have on every issue as opposed to, ‘Are they any good at the thing they do?’ I do think that period is winding down and, I believe, the people who do awful things will still be punished.”

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Gillis was announced as a new featured player ahead of SNLs 45th season in 2019. In the wake of the announcement, resurfaced footage from the comedians podcast quickly went viral, showing Gillis using multiple slurs as he made homophobic jokes and racist quips about Chinese people.

SNL then fired Gillis from the cast as a result of the controversy. “After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” the show said in a statement at the time. “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.”

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Before he was fired, Gillis released a statement on social media. “I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries,” he wrote. “I sometimes miss. If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said. My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.”

Shane Gillis hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2024.

Rosalind O’Connor/NBC

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After his firing was announced, the comedian released another statement. “I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL,” he wrote. “That can’t be taken away. 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. I was always a [Mad TV] guy anyway.”

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Despite the controversy, Gillis hosted SNL in February, and addressed his firing in his opening monologue. “I was fired from this show a while ago,” he said. “Don’t look that up, please. Please don’t Google that. It’s fine. Don’t even worry about it. I probably shouldn’t be up here honestly. I should be at home. I should be a high school football coach.”

Gillis found success with his 2023 Netflix special Beautiful Dogs, and starred in the six episode series Tires, which has been renewed for a second season. Netflix has also ordered a second standup special from the comedian.

SNL will begin its 50th season on Sept. 28 with host Jean Smart and musical guest Jelly Roll.