Bowen Yang Recalls Phone Call With Shane Gillis Before Gillis' 'SNL' Firing

Bowen Yang has shared tidbits from a phone exchange he said he had with Shane Gillis before the latter was fired from “Saturday Night Live.”

Yang and Gillis were both hired onto the comedy show’s cast in 2019. Yang, who had spent a year as a writer for the show, was its first Chinese American cast member and its third out gay man.

Shortly after the casting announcement, racist and homophobic comments that Gillis had made on a podcast in 2018 were circulated on social media. He had used anti-Chinese and homophobic slurs and repeatedly mocked people of Chinese descent.

Gillis issued a non-apology to “anyone who’s actually offended.” Days later, he was fired.

In a new profile in the New Yorker, Yang spoke about the aftermath of Gillis’ firing as he was still processing the enormity of his new gig. After receiving the “SNL” job offer, he said, he couldn’t sleep that night. The next day, he took an afternoon nap and woke up to urgent texts from his agent apologizing and asking if he had seen the Gillis news.

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