Saturday Night Live's new hire Shane Gillis has landed in a controversy over his racist and homophobic jokes about immigrants with comedians demanding that he should be fired from the show.
Footage of Gillis controversial podcast "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast" was posted on social media by entertainment journalist Seth Simons.
In the podcast, Gillis is heard discussing New York City's Chinatown while mocking the language skills of immigrants.
Gillis joins SNL team with writer Bowen Yang, a gay and Chinese American, who is only the third cast member of Asian descent to be a part of the show, Variety reported.
SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels is yet to comment on the controversy but Gillis has issued a statement, saying as a comedian he was just trying to push boundaries.
"As a comedian, I usually side with the comedians on sensitive subjects. But this is just plain racist. Truly disgusting. This man has to go," 'Silicon Valley' star star Jimmy O. Yang wrote on Twitter.
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"Always Be My Maybe" star Daniel Dae Kim wrote, "It took 45 years for @SNL to get an East Asian cast member and in that same year, he'll be joined by someone who would have no problem calling him a "f***kin' ch-nk." Gotta be a joke in there somewhere."
Gillis in his statement, wrote, "I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss. I'm happy to apologize to anyone who's actually offended by anything I've said."
W Kamau Bell, host of CNN's "United Shades of America" roasted Gillis for his response.
"As a comic who also 'pushes boundaries' part of the deal (is) getting pushback. If you don't want pushback then don't 'push boundaries'. Also the boundaries of "jokes" on native Chinese not speaking English well were already pushed by comics when TVs only came in black and white," Bell wrote.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
