Mark Normand / Sam Morril
It doesn’t seem all that long ago when the Shane Gillis x Saturday Night Live drama was unfolding after Lorne Michaels’ show fired Shane before he ever even stepped foot on the stage. That was back in September 2019 and a LOT has changed since then, so much has changed that Shane hosted SNL in February of this year where he made jokes about being fired in his opening monologue.
Just last month in a WSJ interview, SNL creator Lorne Michaels revealed that the decision to fire Shane Gillis came down from NBC. Lorne said in the interview “that was very strong from the people in charge. And obviously I was not on that side, but I understood it.” A few weeks later, SNL veteran Kenan Thompson sat with comics Sam Morril and Mark Normand and Shane Gillis came up again.
The Shane Gillis conversation started while discussing movies and the lack of comedies from Hollywood these days. Kenan says that Hollywood tries to suppress what people want to see and thinks that should change. He said “let the audience tell you. They keep trying to suppress but then you have the Shane Gillises that pop up out of that suppression. You know what I’m saying?”
At this point, Sam Morril asks Kenan Thompson “in the moment, did you think we’re making a mistake by firing him?” and Kenan admits that he “didn’t really know much of the story” and adds that it is “above (his) pay grade, what they do with people.” Which is fair. Even though he’s been on SNL since 2003 he wouldn’t be consulted over staffing decisions like that.
They then discuss any potential beef between Shane Gillis and Bowen Yang and Kenan’s take is those two squashed their beef and says “if it was squashed between the people then that’s as far as it should have gone.” Here is the clip from We Might Be Drunk with Mark Normand and Sam Morril:
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