SNL's Continued Downward Spiral Thread

It would probably be hypocritical of me to want Shane Gillis to be cancelled while simultaneously sprinting to the TV every time that a new Chappelle special drops on Netflix. But I remember saying to myself several times on Saturday that "This is not for me," and I am OK with that.

I do wonder if SNL having Kenan and Ego be soooooo present on Saturday was a coincidence or a choice. I was also a little annoyed that he was allowed to essentially avoid the elephant in the room while Ayo did not get that luxury in the previous episode (although I concede that J. Lo comments are easier to write jokes about than Shane's firing).

The best skit may have been one that they didn't air, IMO.

 

We and a lot of other people have also spent the last 36 hours talking about this episode, which is why I thought would happen if they brought him on, which is exactly why I thought they should.

By the way, I don’t want to give the impression that I was BFF with Shane. We had frequent interactions but he’s a few years younger than me and I was never in the inner circle. We’d talk college football and I’d get a harassing text when Notre Dame beat Pitt. Last time I saw him was probably five years ago and last time we messaged was the day he got SNL. I sent a congratulations message and he replied “Pitt still sucks.”

I mean, dude ain’t wrong.

 

I don't think I have to tell you that's 99.59% closer than any of the rest of us were with Shane Gillis.

 

Remember what I said about getting all of the things, apparently a YouTube skit he and his boys have been doing called Tires will begin airing on Netflix.

 

Two Shane Gillis things.

Mike Gibbons on Sunday Papers podcast said he heard Gillis say he spoke to Louis CK about the monologue. Louis told him to stick with jokes you have. Gillis responded that Louis did new stuff at the show. Louis said "You're not me."

The thing about what got him shitcanned was the jokes weren't funny. I can go a few miles away to a bar in Southie and hear the same stuff. His worst offense was not being funny.

Okay. Maybe the racism was worse.

 

Count me among the apparently few people who a) never heard of Shane Gillis; and b) never knew he got cancelled.

I just read wiki and what he said to get in trouble sounded like every day in my western Maryland high school 40 years ago.

 

Gillis' high school, Trinity, has an intriguing football coach these days: former Penn State and Seattle Seahawks DE Jordan Hill. And Mike Mauti (Vikings) is his right-hand man.

They have a sophomore RB who was offered by Texas A&M before he ever took a snap as a freshman. His name: Messiah Mickens.

 

Appreciate the glimpse behind the curtain, @BitterYoungMatador2. Really interesting. The standup life is fascinating to me. Many many moons ago, @Cosmo and I met up at a hotel on Long Island and had dinner and a drink while watching a buddy of mine do an open mic night. My friend was legitimately funny (I think Cosmo would agree) but he was older, married, paying off the bills he accrued going to law school and talking about starting a family (his daughter is now eight, so this tells you how long ago this really was), so he never really had a lane to try this full-time. I think he was happy to do it for a little while just to say he did it.

I have a good friend who is trying to make a living running comedy shows in upstate NY and bordering areas of Pennsylvania. It's a grind and the pay isn't great (he does DoorDash or something similar to supplement his income) but he loves it. The comics all seem very supportive of one another. Some are older (even older than me!) and probably just doing it for kicks. Some, I'm sure, are hoping to find bigger audiences. My friend surely deserves a bigger audience, but he's a fundamentally nice person who lacks Gillis' willingness to sell himself out for a bigger spotlight (and I mean these as the highest of compliments...like PCLL says, not all money is good money). He sometimes sends me jokes he's working on. He tells me that some stuff I find hilarious falls flat with the audience and some stuff I thought was fine but not hilarious slays. That's another thing that fascinates me about standup...your success on any given night probably depends on subtle changes within your audience.

 

I had bits that I went over in my head for months that died within a minute when I finally got the courage to take them on stage. I had shit that popped in my head on the way there in the car that flew out of my face and got huge laughs. It's a slot machine.

As I retold some of these here, I was going through the memory bank to see what other insights I had. One of the last paid shows I did with him was in 2016ish at some bar. Dude totally wasn't afraid to do five minutes of Sandusky material in a rural PA room knowing (and I think hoping) he would piss a few of them off. As we were driving back, he encouraged me to come to Philly and do mics there, which either means he respected my abilities or wanted to watch me eat shit...or both! Also, and I think this was insightful, he said, "you and I are both at the stage where we're like the captains of the plane being calm even though we've blown both engines and the oil pressure light is on." What he meant was we were both at a level where, when are best shit wasn't working, we could look at the crowd, stay calm and say, "not working for ya? Okay, thought it would. Moving on..."

I think he was doing some of that Saturday. It's crazy that for years, when anyone asked me who I worked with that was famous, I'd jump to Tom Green and Jim Norton and NOW it's "Shane Gillis, Tom Green and Jim Norton." My brain hasn't digested this one.

 

Why do I think Gillis will end up spending 8 years starring in a CBS sitcom? Or a live action attempt at a Seth McFarlane show. I agree with the thought that I didn't see a place for him in the cast, unless he was going to be their first stab at Trump.

 

Interesting that they are putting the epispode as the replay early version a week later.