Shane Gillis Fired Before Appearing on the Show

Many people have been fired from SNL, but Shane Gillis may be the only performer to be fired before his first show.

SNL announced that comedian Shane Gillis would join the show for its 45th season in 2019 — but internet sleuths quickly surfaced audio from Gillis’ podcast.

On an episode of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, which Gillis co-hosted with comedian Matt McCusker — Gillis used a racial slur and made fun of Chinese accents during a discussion about Chinatown. SNL acted swiftly.

“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” a spokesperson said on behalf of SNL producer Lorne Michaels. “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show … 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.”