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Lorne Michaels reflects on Shane Gillis SNL casting backlash: 'The overreaction to it was so stunning'

Lorne Michaels thinks that the controversy of Shane Gillis' 'Saturday Night Live' hiring was 'like a mania' despite the comedian's history of racist and homophobic jokes: 'The overreaction to it was so stunning.'

"He got beat up for things that he’d done years earlier [racist and homophobic jokes] and the overreaction to it was so stunning — and the velocity of it was 200 Asian companies were going to boycott the show." In the wake of the announcement, resurfaced footage from the comedian's podcast quickly went viral, showing Gillis using multiple slurs as he made homophobic jokes and racist quips about Chinese people. Gillis found success with his 2023 Netflix special Beautiful Dogs, and starred in the six episode series Tires, which has been renewed for a second season.

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