‘I Was Angry’: Lorne Michaels Still Can’t Get Over Losing Shane Gillis

Saturday Night Live has weathered its share of controversies over the years, but none of them seem to stick in Lorne Michaels’ craw like the firing of Shane Gillis. The popular comedian was hired in 2019 along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman, but before Gillis could get a picture taken for his security badge, he was fired for offensive comments he’d made in podcasts over the years. What kinds of comments? Racist, homophobic, sexist — Gillis didn’t play favorites. 

A statement was issued “on behalf of Lorne Michaels” disavowing Gillis’s remarks. “After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” the statement read. “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.”

The fact that the press release didn’t quote Michaels directly should have been a clue. Five years later, he says “I was angry” about the decision to can Gillis, blaming NBC for the dismissal. “That was very strong from the people in charge," he told The Wall Street Journal. “And obviously I was not on that side, but I understood it.”

After all, what’s a little racism and homophobia among friends? Can’t bygones be bygones? “He said something stupid, but it got blown up into the end of the world,” Michaels argued. “I thought, You haven’t seen what we’re going to do, and what I’m going to try to bring out in him because I thought he was the real thing.”

None of this is a surprise — Michaels has been telling us all along that Gillis had a home in his projects. He cast the comedian in Bupkis, the comedy he produced for Pete Davidson. Then he invited Gillis to host Saturday Night Live in February. “When he came back to the show last year,” Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter, “we saw, ‘Oh right, he’s really talented, and he would’ve been really good for us.’”

Heck, maybe Michaels will hire Gillis to do the opening monologue at the 50th annivesary party.

Why has Michaels chosen Gillis to be the subject of his public displays of anger? This week marks the 25th anniversary of Norm Macdonald’s return to SNL after he was fired by the network brass. But unlike Gillis’ jokes, Macdonald’s punchlines about O.J. Simpson appear to be on the right side of history. Where was Michaels’ righteous indignation then? By all accounts, he simply shrugged and made Macdonald call NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer directly to learn his fate.

It’s not like Gillis has had Michaels’ back. After he got the boot in 2019, the comedian released a statement revealing where his true loyalties lay: “I was always a MADtv guy anyway.”