The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) — a nonprofit, all-volunteer media watchdog founded in 1992 — is demanding that comedian Shane Gillis make amends to the Asian American community before hosting “Saturday Night Live” on Feb. 24.
“In the week and a half since Gillis’ hosting gig was announced,” says MANAA Founding President Guy Aoki, “he has yet to adequately apologize for the Asian slurs that prevented him from becoming a cast member in 2019. Has he changed since then? How? Many in the Asian American and gay communities he slandered remember and are insulted that SNL and NBC believe he can host the show without rectifying outstanding matters first.”
On Sept. 12, 2019, the same day NBC announced Gillis was joining the cast, a September 2018 episode of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast resurfaced. Speaking with co-host Matt McCusker, Gillis made racist quips about Chinese people: “Damn, Chinatown’s f*cking nuts! It is full of f*cking Chi-NAH (in slight Chinese accent). Dude, f*cking Chinese down there!… The f*cking ch*nks live there, huh?… And it’s full f*ckin’ Chinee [sic] in there.”
On a different podcast, Gillis called former presidential candidate Andrew Yang a “Jew ch*nk.” On another M&SSP episode, the comedian used anti-gay slurs and called director Judd Apatow and comedian Chris Gethard “White f*gg*t comics” who were “f*cking gayer than ISIS.”
Gillis issued a statement: “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.”
“His inclusion of the word ‘a(chǎn)ctually,’” Aoki points out, “indicated that he didn’t believe his slurs really affected Chinese or Asian people.”
Just four days after his official addition to the show, an SNL rep said: “After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL. 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 [a] 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.”
Addressing the “apology” he issued, Gillis told host Tim Dillon on Nov. 9, 2019: “Yeah, I mean, even saying that, I feel really f*cking corny. I don’t even know if I really hurt too many people (laughs).” [at the 9:23 mark] www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcNMljjsqGg
On “Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast” Episode 148, Gillis said: “We’re doing this for an audience of people that know that WE know that what we’re saying is wrong… ‘That’s why they’re saying it. There’s no other reason to say it.’ But when someone that doesn’t know us listens to it, they go, ‘These guys don’t know they’re wrong! And they’re saying wrong things. They’re saying bad words!’” [at the 22:18 mark of Episode #148] www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgfLXocWLh0
Yet just one day after the controversy broke, Gillis still contacted comedian Chris Gethard to apologize for calling him a “f*gg*t.” Gethard told The New York Times, “He definitely let me know that he felt he had crossed some lines.”
Asks Aoki, “If Gillis knew his audience doesn’t take what he says on his podcasts seriously, why did he feel the need to apologize to a straight comic? www.thewrap.com/shane-gillis-called-chris-gethard-apologize-referring-to-him-homophobic-slur-report/
“At the 17:21 minute mark of M&SSP Episode 148, the comedian claims he never said ‘the N-word’ on any of his broadcasts. So the message we get is that he won’t offend the black community and will apologize for using a gay slur on a straight man, but not those slurs made against Asian people.
“It’s this dismissive and hostile attitude toward the Asian American community that lead to unprecedented racial and physical attacks against us after the outbreak of COVID.
“There’s a history of the industry allowing comedians who made offensive racial comments or who were accused of sexual misconduct to not have to apologize. They duck for a few years then slowly build back their careers and continue on as if nothing happened. And some go on to get nominations for awards and even win. We are disappointed in SNL and NBC for allowing Gillis to ‘sneak in through the back door.’
“Is Gillis even that big a star to deserve a hosting slot on SNL in the first place? He may’ve had a Netflix special. But he’s certainly no household name like Michelle Yeoh, who became the first Asian woman ever to win the best-actress Oscar last year. How about Ken Jeong, Ali Wong, Randall Park, Steven Yeun, Ke Huy Quan or John Cho? It wasn’t until the fall of 2019 (ironically, the same time Gillis was to debut) that the show hired an Asian American cast member in Bowen Yang. His presence allowed the show to finally acknowledge the existence of Asian men in society (what a concept!). Yet we still don’t have an Asian American woman on the show (do they not also exist in society?).”
MANAA, the only organization solely dedicated to advocating balanced, sensitive, and positive depiction and coverage of Asian Americans, was founded in 1992. It led nationwide protests against the film “Rising Sun” in 1993 and challenged Sarah Silverman’s use of “chinks” in her joke on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” in 2001.
Between 1999 and 2019, as part of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, MANAA met annually with the top four television networks pushing for more inclusion of APIs. In 2021, MANAA got Jay Leno to apologize for two decades of making jokes about Asians eating dogs and cats while on “The Tonight Show” and on “America’s Got Talent.”