Shane Gillis returns to host ‘Saturday Night Live’ five years after being fired

Comedian Shane Gillis, who was hired and fired from Saturday Night Live nearly five years ago, will now return as host.

Gillis was fired from Saturday Night Live in 2019 before appearing on the show. After her addition to the cast was announced, Gillis made racist slurs toward Chinese people, mocked her stereotypical accent, and said she was “concerned about Asians trying to learn English.” A video of him speaking has resurfaced.

Gillis will host “SNL” on February 24th. The program was announced on Xelicits a variety of reactions.

One user replied: “The monologue is going to be epic.” And the other is, “The world is healing.”

Another wrote, “Oh his past doesn’t matter? You’re despicable.”

A spokesperson for “SNL” did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment Monday.

What did SNL say when Gillis was fired?

When Gillis was fired four days after he was announced as a cast member on SNL, creator Lorne Michaels said the show was unaware of the comedian’s past comments.

“After discussions with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” a spokesperson for the show said at the time. “We were not aware of his previous comments that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We have not seen these clips before. “We regret that we did not meet our standards and that our vetting process was inadequate.” ”

Additional clips using offensive language, including homophobic slurs, were leaked online around that time, and Gillis faced further criticism.

What did Shane Gillis say about his statement?

Mr Gillis apologized for his comments and said he did not intend to hurt anyone.

In a statement posted on Twitter at the time, he wrote: “I’m a boundary-pushing comedian. I miss him sometimes.” “I am happy to apologize to anyone who was actually offended by what I said.”