After Shane Gillis was fired from Saturday Night Live after old jokes resurfaced that were directed at the Asian and LGBT communities, members of the media and many fans online looked for ways to incorporate Bowen Yang into the story. He’s a proud member of both of those communities and had been promoted from his job as a writer into a cast member at the exact same time. It only made sense in the minds of many to link the two together, but years later, Yang now feels like he and Gillis were both “used” to further cancel culture agendas.
The initial firing happened all the way back in 2019. Gillis and Yang were both announced as new cast members alongside Chloe Fineman. Almost immediately, however, some of Gillis’ old jokes surfaced, and despite a lot of protesting from creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels, NBC made the decision to let him go. Yang was recently asked about what happened from his perspective during an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, and he opened up about the sequence of events and how he feels now that more than a half decade has passed.
From Bowen’s perspective, it started when they were announced together as part of the new cast. He apparently went to the park to meditate and think about how his life was about to change when he got a text message from his agent. There were stories everywhere about Gillis’ old jokes and many brought up Yang, despite him not actually being involved. He asked for Gillis’ number, and the two connected over the phone a few days later about the craziness of being a part of a national story.
Not long after the conversation, Gillis was fired, and Yang feels like, in retrospect, the two men were both used as a figureheads when the truth was a lot more nuanced and complicated.
Both of us have had to navigate being used. I think there was like a recruitment going on either side of like, ‘If you like this guy, then this is what you stand for, and if you like this guy, then this is what you stand for.’ And I think both of us are probably a little more dimensional than that.
Fortunately for both men, their careers have skyrocketed since the firing. Gillis has become one of the most popular stand-up comedians in the world and has his own show on Netflix. Yang has emerged as one of SNL’s most popular cast members and has a burgeoning movie career that includes a key role in Wicked and its sequel. They’ve also connected together in person, as Gillis has returned to host the show multiple times in recent seasons.
Yang told Maron the two don’t have much in common, but there’s a “mutual respect” and that he thinks he’s a “funny guy.” He's repeatedly said over the years that he had nothing to do with what happened.
SNL will return for its 51st season this October. Final casting decisions are still being made as to who will return and who will not.
