Hear us out: Shane Gillis and ‘Sushi Glory Hole’ have me talking about ‘SNL’ again
We dodged a bullet on one of these, ‘SNL’ fans. PLUS: Mulaney gets a Netflix show, ‘Lanterns’ locks down its leads, and what caused the ‘Joker’ fiasco?
It’s finally Friday. It’s finally time for a new edition of Popculturology. I spent my week eating the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger and the Chicken Big Mac, but now it’s time to focus on this week’s pop culture news ...
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Sushi through a hole might be a good idear ... but Shane Gillis as the ‘SNL’ Trump isn’t
I didn’t think I would be writing about SNL again for this week’s newsletter. But we got some major — and ridiculous — news about Lorne Michaels’ original plans for Season 50 of the show. And I want to talk more about “Sushi Glory Hole,” the new Digital Short that debuted during last weekend’s episode.
Let’s start with the ridiculous news. According to Shane Gillis, he turned down an offer from Michaels to take over the role of Donald Trump for Season 50. (The Daily Beast and several other outlets reached out to NBC and SNL for confirmation and have yet to receive a response.)
Yes, the same Shane Gillis that was fired by SNL. And hosted what was widely recognized as the worst episode of Season 49. And yes, the same Donald Trump role that already belongs to James Austin Johnson.
Real Ass Dude Shane Gillis sticking w the homies instead of industry climbing. It's a beautiful thing.#Skankfest #SkankfestNYC #CokeMagic pic.twitter.com/weW2CBjUNf
— Zeebz (@ZEEBZ989) October 6, 2024
I've been saying for a while now that Lorne Michaels is out of ideas. This only makes me believe that more. Had SNL brought in Gillis, it would’ve been a slap in the face to not just Johnson and the show’s cast but also to fans of the show.
In that Hollywood Reporter piece that sent shivers down the spines of SNL fans, Michaels illustrated that he doesn’t get what the controversy over Gillis was to begin with.
“We had a bad time when I added Shane Gillis to the cast [in 2019]. He got beat up for things that he’d done years earlier [racist and homophobic jokes] and the overreaction to it was so stunning — and the velocity of it was 200 Asian companies were going to boycott the show,” Michaels told THR. “It became a scandal and I go, ‘No, no, he’s just starting and he’s really funny and you don’t know how we’re going to use him.’ And when he came back to the show last year [to host], we saw, ‘Oh right, he’s really talented, and he would’ve been really good for us.’”
And despite Johnson still being SNL’s Trump, I’ve had a hunch that Michaels had a plan for someone else to be in that role, especially after he told THR that the show has to “reinvent” Trump. And especially after Michaels found a slew of celebrity ringers to play Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Doug Emhoff and Joe Biden.
(Gillis also has a history of not just portraying Trump during his shows but also played him during a pretape for his episode of SNL last season, something that’s potentially a part of Will & Harper director Josh Greenbaum’s upcoming documentary Playing POTUS.)
It’s so disheartening to watch this happen to SNL.
Speaking of things that didn’t live up to my standards, let’s talk about my coverage of last weekend’s episode.
