Comedian Shane Gillis returned to Saturday Night Live on Saturday, February 24, for the first time in nearly five years.
“Thank you very much. Yeah, I’m here,” Gillis, 36, began his SNL monologue. “Most of you probably have no idea who I am. I was fired from this show a while ago. Don’t look that up, please. Please don’t Google that. It’s fine. Don’t even worry about it.”
He continued, “I probably shouldn’t be up here honestly. I should be at home. I should be a high school football coach.”
Gillis was hired as a featured player on SNL in 2019 but was fired four days later after racist and homophobic comments from his podcast resurfaced online. SNL noted at the time that they were unaware of his “offensive” remarks. Gillis also released a statement but did not apologize for his comments.
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“I was always a Mad TV guy anyway,” Gillis quipped in his 2019 statement, referring to the competing sketch comedy program.
On Saturday, Gillis brought his trademark sense of humor to the Studio 8H stage even if it wasn’t camera-ready.
21 Savage, Shane Gillis, and Kenan Thompson during ‘Saturday Night Live’ Promos in Studio 8H on February 22, 2024. Rosalind O’Connor/NBC
“Look, I don’t have any material that can be on TV, alright?” he added in his monologue. “I’m trying my best. Also, this place is extremely well-lit. I can see everyone not enjoying it. This is the most nervous I’ve ever been.”
Gillis’ monologue featured jokes about “being gay,” his niece with Down syndrome — leading him to use the R-word — and more.
“I don’t know if you could tell this about me, but I do have family members with Down syndrome,” he said on Saturday. “It almost got me. I dodged it, but it nicked me.”
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Gillis then interrupted his own monologue when it became clear that his jokes weren’t landing as intended, but he didn’t want applause out of pity. (Gillis thought his joke about how individuals who have Down syndrome “aren’t worried” about the 2024 presidential election would “get a bigger laugh” than it did.)
“Don’t clap now, shut up,” he told audience members. “No, I brought up Down syndrome and you always tell who’s never been around Down syndrome when you bring it up. … People who have never been around it are like, ‘Oh,’ like, it’s the end of the world. ‘Are they doing OK?’ Like, they’re doing better than everybody I know.”
Gillis was joined on Saturday by musical guest 21 Savage, who performed songs “Should’ve Wore a Bonnet/ Prove It” and “Redrum.”
Saturday Night Live airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET.
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