‘SNL’: Shane Gillis Brushes Off 2019 Firing, Tells Audience ‘Please Don’t Google’ Him in Toothless Monologue

February 24, 2024 @ 8:58 PM

Nearly 5 years after being fired from “SNL” before making his debut (following the resurfacing of a ton of bigoted jokes), Shane Gillis, for some reason, was brought back this week to host the show for the first time.

But if you expected the comedian to address what happened, or perhaps illuminate why he was asked to host considering the context, expect again. Gillis brushed off the whole thing with a couple of blithe jokes at the start of his monologue that only alluded to what happened.

“Most of you probably have no idea who I am. I was actually, I was fired from the show a while ago but if you don’t know, don’t look that up. Please. Please don’t google that. It’s fine. Don’t even worry about it. I don’t know, this is, I probably shouldn’t be up here. Honestly. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be. I should be a high school football coach,” Gillis said.

Then he moved on to what amounts to a fairly anodyne stand-up routine.

Watch the monologue below:

Some samples of the monologue include a riff on getting older and chasing dreams, jokes about how he looks like a high school coach, a routine about how little boys are like gay best friends for their moms, and a long routine about his niece who has down syndrome. (For those wondering, the jokes don’t mock people with down syndrome.)

Gillis was hired as a new cast member in September 2019, but was fired a week later after videos surfaced in which he used racial slurs on his podcast. Other such clips were surfaced soon after.

“I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries,” Gillis said in a statement at the time. “I sometimes miss. If you got through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of 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.”

Gillis released his first comedy special on YouTube in 2021 and his second special, “Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs” on Netflix in 2023.

Meanwhile, the cold open mocked the fealty leading Republicans have to Donald Trump even as he constantly mocks them, though it didn’t really mock Trump himself. Fun reminder though, cast member James Austin Johnson has played Trump, who left office in Jan. 2021, at least a dozen times since he joined the show later that year. The show still does not have a regular parody of Joe Biden however.

You can watch the cold open below:

More to come…