The comedian who lost his spot on the NBC show in 2019 over a resurfaced podcast clip is back hosting for what looks like his third time, with Rosalia as musical guest.
Shane Gillis stood on the Saturday Night Live stage again Friday night, hosting an episode of season 52 with Rosalia as musical guest. It's the kind of return that would have seemed unlikely back in September 2019, when NBC fired him from the cast before he'd even done a single sketch.
Here's what happened back then, for anyone who's forgotten or never knew. Gillis was announced as a new cast member alongside Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang. Within days, a podcast clip surfaced of him using a racial slur while talking about Chinatown, plus comments mocking Chinese restaurant staff. The backlash was immediate.
Gillis put out a statement at the time, the kind comedians reach for when a joke lands wrong in public. "I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss," he wrote, adding that he was "happy to apologize to anyone who's actually offended." It didn't save his job.
Four days after his hiring was announced, SNL let him go. A spokesperson speaking for creator Lorne Michaels put out a statement, via Variety, saying the show wanted "a variety of voices and points of view" but that the language in the clips was "offensive, hurtful and unacceptable." The statement also admitted the vetting process had failed: "We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier."
That could have been the end of it. Instead, SNL brought Gillis back to host in February 2024, five years after firing him. He used his opening monologue to joke about the whole mess, telling the audience, "I was actually, I was fired from this show awhile ago. But, you know, don't look that up please." He hosted again in March 2025.
So Friday's episode marks his third time behind the host desk, even though the comedian's own publicity around this appearance has, confusingly, been framed as a second return. Whatever the count, the arc is the same one Gillis has leaned into since the firing. In a standup set not long after he lost the SNL job, he addressed the death threats head-on. "I'm fine with the consequences. I'm not arguing," he said, before adding that he'd been reading every death threat "in an Asian accent," a line that has followed him into every retelling of this story since.
The bigger question now isn't really about Gillis. It's about what SNL's willingness to keep inviting him back says about how quickly a cancellation can become a comeback narrative, especially once a comedian has built an audience that finds the whole saga funny rather than disqualifying. Whether NBC keeps the door open for a fourth hosting stint is the next thing to watch.
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