Commentary: ‘SNL’ deserves the Shane Gillis backlash. It’s been courting liberals for years

It was no parody when “Saturday Night Live” announced this week that the cast for its 45th season would include Bowen Yang, an openly gay Asian American comedian, and Shane Gillis, a comedian whose portfolio includes bigoted jokes about Asians and gays. NBC’s late-night institution took a public shellacking Thursday within hours of the announcement, when journalist Seth Simons drew attention to a September 2018 episode of “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” in which Gillis uses a racist slur. Gillis and McCusker also crack “funny” like cheap stand ups from another era when they mimic Chinese speaking English, saying “noodre” and “dericious.” Gillis’ response to the outcry, posted to Twitter late Thursday, was essentially to brush it off: “I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said,” he wrote. Which is why it’s warranted that “SNL” is catching more flak for Gillis’ casting than, say, Netflix has for giving Dave Chappelle’s recent comedy special “Sticks & Stones” a platform. But while Netflix has promoted liberal ideals with shows like “Sense8,” “SNL” has done so consistently since Dan Aykroyd’s Nixon kept warm by burning incriminating audio tapes on the fire.