Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on “Saturday Night Live’s” firing of Shane Gillis:
Less than a week after he was hired, Shane Gillis was bounced from “Saturday Night Live” after a video surfaced of him making remarks offensive to certain groups.
“SNL” was moved to fire Gillis because of his past denigration, on his podcasts, of Asians, homosexuals, women in the military and those with mental disabilities.
“The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable,” said a statement from “SNL.” But the long-running NBC show is rather selective in what it finds “unacceptable.”
“SNL” has long demonstrated a tolerance for anti-Catholic bigotry, and indeed has contributed to it on several occasions.
Just this year, we’ve been treated to:
- Colin Jost commenting that “Pope Francis ended a Vatican summit by promising the Catholic Church would confront the clergy sex abuse head-on, instead of their usual way, face down, ass up”
- Michael Che Campbell, in a quip about Pope Francis warning against the negative aspects of gossip, asking, “Did you hear what happened to those altar boys?”
- Pete Davidson, in reference to allegations of sexual abuse against singer R. Kelly, saying, “But if you support the Catholic Church, isn’t that like the same thing as being an R. Kelly fan?”
Shane Gillis just picked the wrong groups to mock. Had he targeted Catholics instead, he surely would still be working on “Saturday Night Live.”
Contact Laura Manasevit, press manager for “SNL”: lauren.manasevit@nbcuni.com
