September 17, 2019 | 10:21am
Rob Schneider has come forward to defend fellow comedian Shane Gillis, who was fired from “Saturday Night Live” Monday in the midst of a firestorm over past racist jokes.
“Dear @Shanemgillis As a former SNL cast member I am sorry that you had the misfortune of being a cast member during this era of cultural unforgiveness where comedic misfires are subject to the intolerable inquisition of those who never risked bombing on stage themselves,” Schneider, 55, tweeted Tuesday.
NBC announced it had chosen to let Gillis go after old racist jokes against Asians resurfaced after news of his hiring broke. The peacock network apologized for not vetting Gillis thoroughly before deciding to have him join the weekly variety show.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining ‘SNL,’” an NBC spokesperson told Page Six in a statement.
“We want ‘SNL’ to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as comedian and his impressive audition for ‘SNL.’ We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. 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.”
Gillis initially offered to apologize to anyone who was “actually offended” by his old jokes but after receiving word of his dismissal he tweeted that he understood NBC’s decision.
“I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can’t be taken away. Of course I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction,” he wrote. “I respect the decision they made. I’m honestly grateful for the opportunity. I was always a mad tv guy anyway.”
