Shane Gillis Biography
Shane Gillis is a stand-up comedian and writer based out of New York. He was named as Philly’s Funniest Comedian at Helium Comedy Club in 2016. He has been named one of three newly announced SNL members to debut in the 4th season of the show. He is also a regular on Comedy Central Radio’s The Bonfire, co-host of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast. He has also written for Comedy Central’s Delco Proper.
Shane Gillis Age
Gillis is 38 years old.
Shane Gillis Ethnicity
Shane is Caucasian
Shane Gillis Stand Up
Shane Gillis SNL
Shane was named as a new cast member of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Thursday, September 12, 2019 along with comedians Bowen Yang and Cloe Fineman.
? Season 45 Alert ?
Welcome to the cast, @chloefineman, @Shanemgillis, and @bowenyang!
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) September 12, 2019
Shane Gillis Racist
On Thursday, September 12, 2019, after Shane was announced as a new cast of SNL a video he posted in 2018 in which he used a racial slur for Chinese people and derided Asians trying to learn English emerged. According to a Variety story, the video was apparently posted in 2018 to a YouTube channel featuring Gillis and fellow comedian Matt McCusker.
The video was reposted by Seth Simons, a freelance writer and editor covering comedy on Twitter which brought it to the social media users attention. In the clip, Gillis refers to a city’s Chinatown as being “nuts” and used a derogatory word for Chinese people when he and McCusker marveled that the unidentified city allowed the building of predominantly Chinese architecture. He also complains in the video that Chinese restaurants are full of ”(expletive) Chinese. … And the translation between you and the waiter is just such a (expletive) hassle.”
Gillis said he’s more annoyed by hearing an Asian trying to learn English when he’s eating out than by any other “minority” playing music. He characterized that reaction as “nice racism, good racism,” adding that whites would be a similar target if they were speaking English “over there,” not specifying where he meant.
today SNL announced the hiring of its first cast member of East Asian descent, and also this guy pic.twitter.com/0FAGJZJUkK
— Seth Simons (@sasimons) September 12, 2019
this, again, is from September 2018 pic.twitter.com/inYFT22zjl
— Seth Simons (@sasimons) September 12, 2019
After the video surfaced Shane faced a lot of backlash on social media especially from the Asian community.
If you’re a comic & you think calling Chinese ppl chinks is funny, you’re a hack AND a racist. Oh, & you’re going to make fun of Chinese accents by replacing Ls w/ Rs? For every untalented Shane Gillis there are hundreds of talented Bowen Yangs who have had to fight tooth & nail https://t.co/ptiqm9eboG
— Cindy Pika Chu (@iamcindychu) September 13, 2019
So new SNL hire Shane Gillis is in trouble for making racist comments about Asians on a podcast?
You realize this is a show that had Belushi play a samurai, right? pic.twitter.com/K0wW0zI7DN
— Rev. Mungle? (@robmungle) September 13, 2019
Yeah if you want to know what being a person of color is like, it’s literally that for every Bowen Yang-shaped step you take forward, you also take one racist-ass Shane Gillis-shaped step back https://t.co/mTkG1rBzf6
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) September 12, 2019
I would say it’s amazing no one from SNL found this less-than-year-old-video before hiring him, but that would assume SNL cares about diversity or not hiring racists. Which, at this point, is unclear. https://t.co/GxmmI7Ir8z
— Whitney McIntosh (@WhitneyM02) September 12, 2019
Shane Gillis Apology
Late Thursday Shane posted an apology on Twitter, “I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries. 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 (@Shanemgillis) September 13, 2019
Shane Gillis Instagram
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